British international terrorist, Samantha Lewthwaite otherwise known as ‘White Widow,’ has been linked to Monday’s tragic bomb blast in Nyanya, Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory.
Though no group has officially claimed responsibility for the dastardly act, United Kingdom security sources, are speculating that the bombing may have been a revenge attack for the death of Lewthwaite’s mentor — al-Shabaab terror chief Sheikh Abubakar Shariff Ahmed also known as Makaburi — two weeks ago.
The 30-year-old is believed to be in Nigeria, Kenya or Somalia, where Islamist terror networks are closely linked, making it far easier for her to evade detection than in Europe.
According to a senior security source in the UK, agents across Africa were on high alert after the assassination of Makaburi, by the UK and US funded Kenyan Anti-Terror Police Unit (ATPU) 14 days ago. The source asserted that White Widow and her associates “wanted revenge.”
“Makaburi was always believed to be at the very top of the hierarchy of al-Shabaab”, the security source who preferred to be anonymous said. “Intelligence suggests that he introduced Samantha Lewthwaite to many influential figures within the al-Shabaab network. He guided her on her path to Jihad. His murder was seen as yet another act of war.”
Lewthwaite, daughter of a British Army soldier, is the most wanted woman in the world. She is connected with seven murders and the Westgate shopping mall siege that resulted in 67 deaths and 200 severe injuries in Nairobi, Kenya, in September 2013.
“The world’s most wanted woman was reportedly caught at a checkpoint in Nigeria just six months ago, but managed to bribe her way to freedom”, the UK senior security source said. “It is believed that she commands enormous loyalty and power as a white convert female jihadist, having proved her worth in previous attacks.”
Lewthwaite has been on the run since January 2012. She got the ‘White Widow’ nickname after husband Germaine Lindsay blew himself up while bombing a London Tube train in what is now referred to as the 7/7 bombings of 2005 where 56 people were killed and more than 700 were injured.
According to a UK newspaper, Daily Star, Lewthwaite, from Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, UK, is believed to have widely used the alias ‘Natalie Webb’ and travelled on a forged South African passport. She is now officially being hunted by 190 countries and is one of the most wanted international fugitives in the world.
The paper revealed that Police seized her laptop in 2011 and found details of how to build bombs and many evidences that she was planning multiple terrorist attacks both in Africa and the West. She has also been linked to grenade attacks at non-Muslim places of worship in Africa and a terrorist attack on western football fans watching Euro 2012 in the Jericho bar in Mombasa, South Africa.
According to Head of Interpol, Ronald Noble, There is a global ‘tripwire’ for this fugitive and all 190 Interpol member-countries are aware of the danger she embodies worldwide.
