Sunday January 16, 2022
The British-born terrorist who is thought to be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people has split from her latest partner and fled to Yemen, security sources have said.
Mother-of-four Samantha Lewthwaite, originally from Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, is among the world's most wanted women.
The 38-year-old jihadist, who was married to one of the 7/7 suicide bombers, fled the UK for South Africa in 2009, later crossing into Tanzania in 2011 and then Kenya, before investigators tracked her to an al-Shabaab stronghold in Somalia.
Her nickname among intelligence agencies is 'White Widow', and she has been linked with a string of terror attacks in Africa that have caused the deaths of more than 400 people.
Most recently, she spent seven years with her fourth husband, a Somalia warlord known as 'Sheikh Hassan', before splitting from him and fleeing to Yemen, reports The Mirror.
Security sources say Lewthwaite, who was the daughter of a British solider during Northern Ireland's Troubles, is understood to have fled from a 'no-go' area in Somalia after their breakup.
She is now believed to reside in a jihadi-sympathising stronghold in neighbouring Yemen, where she wears a full niqab and gloves to conceal her identity.
One security source told the Mirror: '[Lewthwaite] and Sheikh Hassan are no longer together – it is thought they are divorced. She had protection from his family in a no-go area in Somalia.
'But now she is not welcome and has gone back to al-Qaeda-controlled Yemen. She got there in a dhow sailing vessel.
Though no intelligence on British mother Lewthwaite's exact location has been received for months, security sources now believe that she is caught up in the deadly chaos of Yemen's long-running civil war between government forces and Islamists.
Lewthwaite, originally of Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, was the wife of 7/7 bomber Germaine Lindsay and is thought to be behind scores of suicide attacks across Africa and the Middle East.
Interpol issued a Red Notice warrant for her arrest after she was linked to the 2013 Westgate Mall attack in Kenya, which left five Britons and 66 other people dead and injured around 200 others.
Security services believe her other atrocities include the slaughter of 148 people by gunmen at a university in 2015.
In Yemen, she is understood to have recruited female suicide bombers with bribes of £3,000. She is also thought to have sent male suicide bombers as young as 15, high on heroin, to their deaths.
London University graduate Lewthwaite reportedly altered her appearance through plastic surgery and piled on weight in a bid to remain unrecognised.
She has pledged to raise all of her four children, who have three different fathers, as jihadists.
As a teenager she was seduced by the teachings of extremist cleric Trevor Forrest, or Sheikh Abdullah el-Faisal, through whom she met Lindsay, who killed himself and 26 others in 2005.
Samantha Lewthwaite, originally of Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, was the wife of 7/7 bomber Germaine Lindsay and is thought to be behind scores of suicide attacks across Africa and the Middle East.
Interpol issued a Red Notice warrant for her arrest after she was linked to the 2013 Westgate Mall attack in Kenya, which left five Britons and 66 other people dead and injured around 200 others.
Security services believe her other atrocities include the slaughter of 148 people by gunmen at a university in 2015.
In Yemen, she is understood to have recruited female suicide bombers with bribes of £3,000. She is also thought to have sent male suicide bombers as young as 15, high on heroin, to their deaths.
London University graduate Lewthwaite reportedly altered her appearance through plastic surgery and piled on weight in a bid to remain unrecognised.
She has pledged to raise all of her four children, who have three different fathers, as jihadists.
As a teenager she was seduced by the teachings of extremist cleric Trevor Forrest, or Sheikh Abdullah el-Faisal, through whom she met Lindsay, who killed himself and 26 others in 2005.