International terrorism intelligence believe most wanted British female terrorist, Samantha Lewthwaite was the mastermind of the Westgate mall attack. This terror experts say could ex- plain the articulate planning behind the raid, as she is said to be a hardcore Al Shabaab schemer. Special forces fighting to break the terrorists’ resolve said it was proving to be an explosive challenge yesterday afternoon and night, as smoke and fire broke out amid pitched battle believed to be the final assault against the terrorists. Local and foreign intelligence sources said the attack on Westgate bore the hallmarks of 29-year-old Lewthwaite, nicknamed the ‘White Widow’, who had in the past operated from Mombasa, Tanzania and Somalia and believed to have guided many sporadic attacks on Kenyan soil. Details of her possible involvement unfolded as the final order was reportedly given to the multiagency. Kenyan forces to storm the mall and flush out the terrorists while making every effort to save the lives of an unknown number of hostages. By 8pm last night, fire was engulfing one side of the mall’s ground floor, while gun battles could be heard from above and below, with terrorists said to have been succumbing to sustained assault. It remained unclear if hostages had been rescued or if any were alive, with explosions and gunfire so intense that it was hard to read the situation. At least 62 people had been confirmed dead, 175 hospitalised with gun wounds and more than 1, 000 hostages rescued. British press, citing intelligence reports, indicated Lewthwaite remained a suspect in the mall at- tack, despite Cabinet secretary for internal security Joseph ole Lenku denying yesterday that there were any female attackers. International terrorism intelligence believe she still operates between Kenya and Somalia. She may have been in the mall or outside, but nothing of this magnitude in Nairobi could be done without her, said one source. The Daily Mail of London wrote that anti-terror intelligence had revealed that Lewthwaite may be the brains behind the operation to bring terror to the heart of Kenya. “I suspect this woman Lewthwaite is behind this attack,”a senior anti-terror source said, after survivors described how a woman in a veil appeared to be commanding the other terrorists as they hunted down and killed shoppers. The newspaper report went on: “The idea that she might have ordered the attack – or even led it herself – is not far-fetched at all. Having converted to Islam as a young woman and married a man who went on to be a 7/7 London suicide bomber, she has become a key figure in the terror group be- hind this weekend’s attack.” Lewthwaite has even been in- volved in training a group of all- female suicide attackers at camps in lawless neighbouring Somalia. “It is an extraordinary, macabre journey into darkness for the 29-year-old, who grew up as a normal teenager in Aylesbury before meeting Jermaine Lindsay, a British Muslim, in an online chat room when she was 17. The pair married three years later,” said the report. When her husband was named as one of four suicide bombers who blew up Tube trains and a bus in 2005, killing 52 people, Lewthwaite initially condemned her late husband’s attack and denied any knowledge of his plan, wrote Daily Mail. The paper wrote: “This was a lie. More than eight years later, Lewthwaite is one of Al Qaeda’s main recruiters in East Africa and is an official spokesman for Al Shabaab, the terrorist group be- hind the horror in Nairobi.” Known to her devoted followers as ‘Dada Mzungu’ – Kiswahili for White Sister – Lewthwaite moved to Kenya with her three children in 2007, wrote the newspaper. A small, dumpy woman, she cut off all links with her family in Britain and became immersed in East Africa’s Islamic terror net- works, forging links with other British fanatics who had come to Kenya to wage ‘jihad’ against non- believers. It was last year that details of Lewthwaite’s secret new life emerged in grisly detail. It was discovered she was active in Kenya when it was reported that a white woman, later identified as Lewthwaite, led a group of terrorists who fired grenades into a bar Kisauni, in Mombasa. Wrote the newspaper: “Even before this weekend’s attack, the activities of Lewthwaite and her fellow terrorists had turned Kenya into a place of fear and paranoia. Clearly, the White Widow has a taste for blood. It remains to be seen whether she will live long enough to kill again.” Meanwhile, a huge blast was first heard yesterday at about 1.30pm, sending emergency units, police officers and media crew scampering for safety. The blast at the mall was fol- lowed by sustained heavy gunfire and huge smoke which billowed in the air till late evening signifying what security agencies said was a major operation. In the evening at around 5:30 pm, persistent gun fire was yet again heard from sections of the mall. Whereas scant information was available to media corps on the exact goings on at the time, fire fighters and armoured military vans sped their way in and out of the scene of the attack. Security personnel involved in the rescue operation intimated variously to The People that security agencies now believe terrorists were suspected to have had an armoury stock hidden in a shop in or near the mall. “They also seem to know the mall very well, pointing to the level which they had prepared for this,” added other security personnel. Addressing the country on the state of the operation however, the Chief of the Kenya Defence Forces General Julius Karangi exuded confidence that the rescue mission would soon come to an end even as he admitted the veracity of the attack. Karangi noted that the at- tack had been masterminded by international terror suspects, but added that they would be neutralized. Karangi said that chances of any terrorists sneaking and escaping from the mall were nil as KDF troops had sealed all possible es- cape routes. Cabinet Secretary Lenku on his part said the operation had made significant progress leading to the rescue of a good number of hostages. He attributed the smoke that billowed for most of the afternoon from a section of the mall heightening anxiety among Kenyans about the state of the hostages to an attempt by the attackers to foil the assault by the multi-agency force. “They lit mattresses to divert attention of security agencies, but this was not successful,” said Lenku. By late evening the fire had however been containe
Posted on: Tue, 24 Sep 2013 05:50:39 +0000
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