Scotland Yard joins hunt for British terrorist

By STANDARD REPORTER

The United Kingdom has sent a team of terrorism experts to Kenya to help in the hunt for a British woman who has eluded capture for six months.

Seven officers from the Scotland Yard Counter Terrorism Command flew into the country on Monday to join the hunt for Samantha Lewthwaite, a Muslim convert whose husband killed 26 people in a terror attack in London in 2005. They join officers from the Kenya Anti-Terror Police unit and the United States Central Intelligence Agency who have been hunting her down.

Dubbed the White Widow by the UK media, she is described as a major financier of terrorism activities in Kenya. Lewthwaite, 28, has been on the run for close to six months after police foiled a plot to kill hundreds of British tourists in Mombasa. She was arrested and charged in court in December after police found weapons and explosives in one of her safe houses in Mombasa. However, she was later released in unclear circumstances.

She is suspected to have taken refuge in Somalia before returning to Kenya to continue funding and coordinating smaller terror attacks. Lewthwaite, of Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, had been travelling on the forged passport of an Essex nurse.

The mother of three is suspected of involvement in a grenade attack on the Jericho Beer Garden in Mombasa last week that left three people dead. She is also believed to be the author of a web diary on jihad called ‘Fears and Tears: Confessions of a Female Mujahid’. The diary has appeared on the website of the Muslim Youth Centre, the Kenyan arm of Islamic militant group Al-Shabaab. On the morning of the Mombasa attack, a message was posted on the site saying: “BOOM!!! Mujahideen making music.” Hints about an attack were also posted on the MYC’s Twitter account.

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