As attempts to flush the remaining militants out of a Kenyan shopping centre continued, officials said three Islamist extremists had died during attempts to free their hostages.
Insiders said one was a white woman – adding weight to the theory that Lewthwaite, the fugitive widow of 7/7 bomber Jermaine Lindsay, was behind the attack that has left 62 dead and 170 injured.
A report from the Reuters news agency said three sources – one intelligence officer and two soldiers – had confirmed that a white woman was among the fallen terrorists.
Police are exploring whether she could be a hostage dressed in one of the terrorist’s clothes, but the Foreign Office is also examining Muslim convert Lewthwaite’s links to the massacre.
The 29-year-old mother of four, from the Home Counties, is now a leading figure in Al Shabaab – the terror group that has claimed responsibility for the killings in the Israeli-owned Westgate shopping centre.
Police believe she is the one of the group’s main financiers and bomb-making tutors. However, sources admit they still do not know the full extent of her involvement in the attack in Nairobi
Nevertheless, a senior Kenyan anti-terror officer yesterday claimed: ‘We believe she was commanding the operation but her fate is not yet known. It is understood she was a sniper also.’
The Mail revealed yesterday that soldiers say they saw a white woman in a veil shouting orders to gunmen in Arabic, while a Twitter account purporting to represent Al Shabaab claimed responsibility for the atrocity and praised Lewthwaite, from Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, as ‘a brave lady’.
Despite this, Kenya’s interior minister Joseph Ole Lenku said that all of the terrorists were men, with some dressed as women. Lewthwaite has been on the run in East Africa since police foiled her plot to blow up a shopping centre in another Kenyan city, Mombasa, two years go.
Her London-born accomplice, Jermaine Grant, was due to stand trial yesterday, but his hearing was delayed so that terror officers preparing to give evidence could instead be diverted to Nairobi, to assist officials there.
Source: Daily Mail
