Woman wanted for terror links fled to Somalia

By CYRUS OMBATI

Police have said a wanted British woman believed to be the widow of one of the July 7, 2005, London bombers has fled to Somalia and is more than three months pregnant.

Intelligence reports show Samantha Lewthwaite fled to Somalia after evading a police dragnet in Mombasa last December in which her terror accomplices were arrested.

Police, who are still combing the Coast, believe a Kenyan who is responsible for the pregnancy also fled Mombasa.

She was part of a group of British citizens and other foreign nationals who arrived in Kenya last year to plan a bomb attack at the Coast over Christmas and New Year celebrations.

An official aware of investigations and hunt of Lewthwaite said she was in charge of finances for the planned attack and was fundraising for the group. The officer asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Lewthwaite is the widow of Jermaine Lindsay, one of the bombers who took part in the London attack that killed 52 people and wounded more than 700. She was connected to the aide of East Africa’s top al-Qaeda operative. Both men were killed in Somalia last year.

Anti-Terrorism Police Unit officers suspect Lewthwaite was working with Musa Hussein Abdi, the Kenyan man who was shot dead with al-Qaeda operative Fazul Abdullah Mohammed in Somalia in last June.

Fake passport

Anti-terror police found a British woman — believed to be Lewthwaite — in Abdi’s house on December 20, last year, but let her go after being fooled by the fake South African passport she carried in the name of Rachel Faye Webb.

Police went to Abdi’s house while retracing the steps of Jermaine Grant, another British national who arrived in Kenya last year to also plan terror attacks.

Grant was arrested after police trailed him following a tip-off that he was involved in the planned attack. Police found materials used to make bombs in his house.

The officers led Grant to Abdi’s nearby house, where they found his widow and a British woman who produced a passport in Webb’s name.

"The officers released both women but were ordered to return to the scene by their bosses. By then the foreign woman, who was indeed the wanted terror suspect, was gone," added another official.

She had arrived in Kenya in November using the forged document and travelled to Mombasa where the attack was to take place.