British Woman Fingered In Nairobi Mall Attack

The terror attack on a Kenyan shopping centre that has left 68 dead was led by the white English widow of a 7/7 bomber, security authorities claimed.

Soldiers said a white woman wearing a veil was shouting orders to gunmen in Arabic during the bloody massacre inside the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi.

It said on Twitter that Samantha Lewthwaite, the “white widow” of London 7/7 bomber Jermaine Lindsay, was ‘in their ranks’ and a “brave lady.”

A dead white woman said to be Lewthwaite, has been found among Islamic terrorists killed by soldiers as they stormed the mall where 68 shoppers were killed, Kenyan officials said.

The claim, made by three sources to news agency Reuters, will fuel speculation that the dead woman is Samantha Lewthwaite, the widow of 7/7 bomber Jermaine Lindsay, who is wanted by Kenyan police on a string of terror charges. Police will also investigate the possibility that she is a hostage dressed in one of the terrorist’s clothes.

Asked if it was Lewthwaite, dubbed the “White Widow,” an intelligence officer said: “We don’t know.”

Moments after the news broke, Al Shabaab, the Al Qaeda affiliated terror group behind the massacre at Nairobi’s Westgate Shopping Centre, used their Twitter feed to claim that Lewthwaite was safe.

Terrorists set mall ablaze, 3 killed, 10 arrested
Heavy gunfire sent aid workers and journalists scrambling outside Nairobi’s Westgate Shopping Mall on Monday afternoon, more than an hour after a Kenyan government official said security forces had taken full control of the four-story building from terrorists.

It was unclear if any hostage remained inside the building, but authorities expect the number to be “very, very minimal,” if any remain, Interior Minister, Joseph Ole Lenku said at a news briefing.

Most of them had already been evacuated, he said on Monday, the third day of the siege.

The Kenyan Red Cross said that 62 people had died since the Saturday attack by gunmen from the Somalia-based Al-Shabaab terror group.

The agency had previously reported 69 deaths. Some bodies had been counted twice, it said on Twitter.

Dark smoke that rose from the building after Monday’s assault was from fires set by the gunmen to distract forces from the assault, Lenku said.

Terrorists appear to be on the run inside the mall, which Lenku said had been sealed off to prevent their escape.

“We are in charge of the situation, our people are safe,” he said.

Kenyan authorities say they have killed three of the terrorists.

The Interior Ministry told CNN that authorities had arrested “around four” people on suspicion of involvement in the attack. The agency later tweeted that more than 10 were arrested. The arrests were made at the airport, the agency said on Twitter.

Eleven Kenya Defence Forces soldiers have been injured, police said on Twitter.

The country’s Immigration Department said in a tweet that it had increased security at entry and exit points.

Before the assault, terrorists were believed to have about 10 hostages on one level of the mall, security officials said.

An unspecified number of hostages then were freed overnight, the head of the Kenyan police force said.