Security forces around the globe are locked in a desperate hunt to find British terrorist Samantha Lewthwaite as officials warned she could strike again. Interpol issued a warrant for the 29-year-old Muslim convert, dubbed the White Widow, six days after she was suspected of playing a key role in the al-Shabaab massacre of at least 67 people, including Brits, at a shopping centre in Nairobi, Kenya. Kenyan security officials issued a Red Notice asking other countries to help track down the fanatic – who has become the world’s most wanted woman since the horrific bloodbath. Interpol secretary general Ronald Noble said: “Kenya has activated a global ‘tripwire’ for this fugitive. "Through the Interpol Red Notice, Kenyan authorities have ensured all 190 member countries are aware of the danger posed by this woman, not just across the region but also worldwide.” A security source added: “Samantha Lewthwaite is the world’s most wanted woman and the international security community must find her.” The terror suspect is feared to be on the run with her three children and could be using them as a cover to avoid detection. However, she may have also had to split up the two boys and a girl in a bid to foil police as they close in. The plea to find her came as more survivors of the ferocious terrorist attack told how they saw a white woman directing the murder mission inside the Westgate shopping centre.
Radio Africa reporter Bernard Wambua was overseeing a cookery competition for children in the car park when the crazed Jihadists burst in and began spraying bullets in all directions from an array of weapons. “Two men came to the parking lot. In their hands were huge guns and I could see pistols sticking out of their pockets. "They started shooting at everyone and everything. The light skinned woman joined them. "She too had a gun. She would point at things and the men shot at them. "She shot at a gas cylinder we were using for the competition which resulted in a small fire. "She blasted several microwaves too.” Schoolgirl Poorvi Jain, 12, claimed the woman was accompanied by two boys aged 15 or 16, one of whom was wearing a bandana and carrying a guitar case from which he produced a gun. Her headteacher Dr Geetika Saxena, said: “Poorvi said she saw these men just going round 360 degrees with their guns. "She said they were just not considering anyone, if the bullet doesn’t touch you, you’re lucky, otherwise that’s it. "She described the men and says she saw a white lady with two other men.”
Soldiers have supported the accounts, with one claiming he shot a white woman during an intense fire fight. Security agencies, including MI6, the CIA and the Kenyan National Intelligence Service are “working round the clock” to nail Lewthwaite – widow of 7/7 London suicide bomber Germaine Lindsay. She has been on the run since 2011 after dramatically escaping capture when police swooped on a rented house she shared in Mombasa with Briton Jermaine Grant. Lewthwaite, from Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, had been suspected of being part of a terror plot to blow up Kenyan tourist spots. London-born Grant was arrested and on trial there. While on the run, she has racked up thousands of pounds in debts as she travelled the world on fake South African documents. Officials in Johannesburg say they have found at least two different ID numbers on multiple drivers’ licences and passports linked to her. One of Lewthwaite’s aliases – stolen from British nurse Natalie Faye Webb – was flagged across the world to alert officials to her most wanted status. As Webb, she was able to rent at least three properties in Johannesburg. She was listed as living in the city’s mainly south Asian neighbourhood of Mayfair. In 2011, Lewthwaite, under her alias, was being chased by debt collectors for more than £4,000 by clothes stores and banks. The debts were eventually written off after investigators failed to track her down. But the banks have now reopened their inquiries.
It has emerged she also worked as a computer specialist in a halal pie factory near Soweto under the name Webb. The plant’s former boss described her as “a quiet woman who kept to herself”. He said she abruptly resigned after US Embassy officials came to interview her last year following a meeting of counter-terror police. More horrific details of the torture meted out to the hostages emerged by troops who found their mutilated bodies. They claim many were dismembered, some men castrated, others had their eyes gouged out and victims were suspended from hooks in the supermarket ceiling. One soldier was so traumatised by what he witnessed he has had to seek counselling. He said: “There were children in the fridges. "There were bodies hanging from the ceiling. There were fingers cut off and body parts thrown out of the building. They used hostages as human shields.” And a doctor described the carnage as “the stuff of nightmares”. He added: “They removed testicles, eyes, ears, nose. They drive knives inside a child’s body.” The death toll stands at 67. The number of Brits killed was originally thought to be six but one of those has now been identified as a Kenyan. But there could be many more bodies inside the bombed-out remains of the shopping centre that forensic teams, including one from the Met Police, are still unable to reach. The Foreign Office said: We cannot rule out the potential for further British casualties.”
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