Latest news with #WhiteWidow
Daily Mirror
12-07-2025
- Daily Mirror
7/7 'White Widow' Samantha Lewthwaite 'still alive' according to bombshell intel
Samantha Lewthawaite left the UK in 2008 and married a man who had ties to terrorist organisations al-Qaeda and al-Shabaab and is believed to be associated with attacks in Africa Samantha Lewthawaite, the woman who married one of the 7/7 suicide bombers, better known as the "White Widow" might still be alive, according to bombshell intel. The daughter of a British soldier who went on to become a Muslim convert and was married to Germaine Lindsay, who killed 26 out of the 52 people who died in the coordinated attacks in London in 2005. She has since been wanted for a number of terrorist attacks in Africa after she fled the UK. She has been featured prominently this week as articles and TV programmes mark the 20th anniversary of the deadly attack. Following her disappearance, she has become wanted in connection with terrorism charges over attacks in the country between 2012 and 2019, killing 244 people. Rumours have circulated since her disappearance that she died in a drone strike but a senior source who contacted a reporter at the country's Standard newspaper claims she is very much alive and was living in neighbouring Uganda as recently as last year. She is now believed to be based in Somalia, and is thought to be part of the al-Qaeda affiliate al-Shabaab cell, as reported by MailOnline. She previously left the UK with her children as a free woman in 2008. She landed in Johannesburg, South Africa, and went on to marry a second time. Her second husband Fami Salim, was a Kenyan with familial links to both al-Qaeda and al-Shabaab. Lewthawaite gained notoriety for marrying Muslim convert Lindsay, a Jamaican-born carpet-fitter in an Islamic chatroom when she was 18. In an interview with the Sun, for which she was paid £30,000, she branded his actions as abhorrent. She was placed in a safe house after their home in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, was the subject of an arson attack. The White Widow went on to give birth to a daughter shortly after the bombings and she was given the middle name "Shahidah," meaning "martyr" in Arabic. Ex-Metropolitan Police anti-terrorism officer David Videcette recalled his views on the White Widow in an interview for the Netflix series, "World's Most Wanted". He said: "Samantha played dumb – I am just the wife. I really pressed hard to have her arrested. "I really wanted her on the suspect list. Sadly, the senior investigating officer felt there was not enough evidence to prosecute and the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service] were going to say 'no'. I massively regret that she got this opportunity to kill other people." It comes as Britain marks 20 years since the London bombings on July 7, 2005 this week, in which 52 people died and hundreds were injured. The attacks left witnesses, including first responders, horrified by the sheer devastation and destruction the horrific attack caused.
Scottish Sun
12-07-2025
- Scottish Sun
Fugitive ‘White Widow' terrorist Samantha Lewthwaite ‘is still alive and active in terror cell financing jihadists'
A new investigation has given fresh clues as to where the long-wanted extremist might have been WIDOW MOST WANTED Fugitive 'White Widow' terrorist Samantha Lewthwaite 'is still alive and active in terror cell financing jihadists' Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) THE notorious 'White Widow' Brit terrorist linked to 400 deaths who married a 7/7 suicide bomber is still alive and active in terror cells, a new investigation has claimed. Samantha Lewthwaite has been one of the world's most wanted terrorists having eluded capture for years. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 6 Samantha Lewthwaite 6 The wreck of the Number 30 double decker bus is pictured in Tavistock Square in central London, 08 July, 2005 Credit: AFP 6 Samantha Lewthwaite has long been wanted in connection to a string of terror related incidents 6 A photo of Samantha Lewthwaite taken from her fake South African passport released by Kenyan police in December 2011 Credit: AFP Rumours have circulated since her disappearance that she died in a drone strike. But an investigation from the Daily Mail has shed lights on the possible whereabouts of a figure linked to a series of ghastly attacks. It comes as Britain marks 20 years since the London bombings on July 7, 2005 this week, in which 52 people died and hundreds were injured. Lewthwaite, who was born in Northern Ireland and grew up in Aylesbury, was married to one of the suicide bombers, Germaine Lindsay. read more in world news PILOT 'MISTAKE' Air India pilots made fatal error after takeoff, crash investigators claim She denied knowing he planned to blow up a tube train, but her subsequent alleged involvement with other terrorists has cast doubt on that. The now 41-year-old left the UK in 2009 and went to South Africa, before heading on to Tanzania in 2011 and then to Kenya. Lewthwaite was put on Interpol's red list of fugitives in 2013 after a shopping mall massacre in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, in which 67 died. She is also accused of orchestrating the attack in Mombasa targeting England fans during Euro 2012, and two other deadly attacks in the country. The Brit has been in total linked to around 400 deaths. Security services across Africa and the Middle East have tried to track her down without any success for a decade and a half. At a court hearing in 2014, one Kenyan detective said: "She is a person with multiple identification. "She keeps moving. We think she is using plastic surgery including her nose." But it is now believed she is still alive and was spotted in Uganda as recently as last year. She is allegedly now based in Somalia, where she is part of an al-Shabaab cell - an al-Qaeda affiliate. "Despite not knowing her exact location, we believe she is active in terrorism activities under al-Shabaab control in Somalia," a source said. The White Widow was also reported to be the "main financier" of the cell, operating in a logistical role. In this position, she allegedly controls the money instead of working on the front lines. She is also said to be a fan of Beyonce and Weetabix. Police previously crossed paths briefly with Lewthwaite when investigating a property in Mombasa in 2011. A British man called Jermaine Grant was arrested when fuses and ammunition were found stashed under a sofa - and he named Lewthwaite as the senior cell member. While cops discovered she was in the adjacent apartment, the passport they found was in a different name. Lewthwaite had fled by the time they realised the passport was a fake. This was the last confirmed sighting of her. It is now alleged the officers accepted a bribe of five million Kenyan dollars (nearly £30,000) from her when they went to the apartment. In 2018, there were alleged sightings in Yemen where she was said to be offering as little as £300 to the desperate families of young women to persuade them to become suicide bombers. She has not yet been charged with any of those offences. As a teenager she was seduced by the teachings of extremist cleric, Trevor Forrest, or Sheik Abdullah el-Faisal. Lewthwaite even visited him in prison in 2006, a year after the bombings. Through el-Faisal she met first husband, bomber Germaine Lindsay who killed himself and 26 others on the Tube in July 7, 2005. 6 Germaine Lindsay and Samantha Lewthwaite Credit: ©2020 Netflix, Inc.
The Sun
12-07-2025
- The Sun
Fugitive ‘White Widow' terrorist Samantha Lewthwaite ‘is still alive and active in terror cell financing jihadists'
THE notorious 'White Widow' Brit terrorist linked to 400 deaths who married a 7/7 suicide bomber is still alive and active in terror cells, a new investigation has claimed. Samantha Lewthwaite has been one of the world's most wanted terrorists having eluded capture for years. 6 6 6 6 Rumours have circulated since her disappearance that she died in a drone strike. But an investigation from the Daily Mail has shed lights on the possible whereabouts of a figure linked to a series of ghastly attacks. It comes as Britain marks 20 years since the London bombings on July 7, 2005 this week, in which 52 people died and hundreds were injured. Lewthwaite, who was born in Northern Ireland and grew up in Aylesbury, was married to one of the suicide bombers, Germaine Lindsay. She denied knowing he planned to blow up a tube train, but her subsequent alleged involvement with other terrorists has cast doubt on that. The now 41-year-old left the UK in 2009 and went to South Africa, before heading on to Tanzania in 2011 and then to Kenya. Lewthwaite was put on Interpol's red list of fugitives in 2013 after a shopping mall massacre in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, in which 67 died. She is also accused of orchestrating the attack in Mombasa targeting England fans during Euro 2012, and two other deadly attacks in the country. The Brit has been in total linked to around 400 deaths. Security services across Africa and the Middle East have tried to track her down without any success for a decade and a half. At a court hearing in 2014, one Kenyan detective said: "She is a person with multiple identification. "She keeps moving. We think she is using plastic surgery including her nose." But it is now believed she is still alive and was spotted in Uganda as recently as last year. She is allegedly now based in Somalia, where she is part of an al-Shabaab cell - an al-Qaeda affiliate. "Despite not knowing her exact location, we believe she is active in terrorism activities under al-Shabaab control in Somalia," a source said. The White Widow was also reported to be the "main financier" of the cell, operating in a logistical role. In this position, she allegedly controls the money instead of working on the front lines. She is also said to be a fan of Beyonce and Weetabix. Police previously crossed paths briefly with Lewthwaite when investigating a property in Mombasa in 2011. A British man called Jermaine Grant was arrested when fuses and ammunition were found stashed under a sofa - and he named Lewthwaite as the senior cell member. While cops discovered she was in the adjacent apartment, the passport they found was in a different name. Lewthwaite had fled by the time they realised the passport was a fake. This was the last confirmed sighting of her. It is now alleged the officers accepted a bribe of five million Kenyan dollars (nearly £30,000) from her when they went to the apartment. In 2018, there were alleged sightings in Yemen where she was said to be offering as little as £300 to the desperate families of young women to persuade them to become suicide bombers. She has not yet been charged with any of those offences. As a teenager she was seduced by the teachings of extremist cleric, Trevor Forrest, or Sheik Abdullah el-Faisal. Lewthwaite even visited him in prison in 2006, a year after the bombings. Through el-Faisal she met first husband, bomber Germaine Lindsay who killed himself and 26 others on the Tube in July 7, 2005. 6 6
Daily Mail
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Bombshell new information that suggests 'White Widow' Samantha Lewthwaite IS still alive: British mother linked to 7/7 bombings likes Beyonce and Weetabix... and may have evaded capture with £30,000 bribe
Samantha Lewthwaite, like other infamous figures, is better known by her unwanted sobriquet: the 'White Widow'. It has a chilling ring to it, even after all these years. Lewthwaite, for anyone who may have forgotten, is the Christian-born daughter of a former British soldier who became a Muslim convert and married one of the 7/7 suicide bombers. Her 'martyred' husband, Germaine Lindsay, was responsible for 26 of the 52 deaths in the coordinated wave of attacks on London 's transport network in 2005, after detonating an explosive-filled rucksack on a Piccadilly Line Tube train at King's Cross. Who could have predicted in the immediate aftermath of the carnage that his seemingly innocent young wife from Buckinghamshire – then eight months pregnant with their second child – would end up having more blood on her hands than him in the ensuing two decades? Hence the reason Samantha Lewthwaite, wanted for a string of terrorist atrocities in Africa after leaving the UK, is called the 'White Widow.' Today, after inevitably fading from public consciousness with the passage of time, she is back in the news. Lewthwaite has been featured in TV programmes and newspaper articles to mark the 20th anniversary this week of the July 2005 bombings. Her transformation – from Home Counties prom queen to fanatical jihadist – is, controversially, also being made into a feature film called Girl Next Door starring Bella Ramsey from the post-apocalyptic TV series The Last Of Us. Her 'martyred' husband, Germaine Lindsay (right), was responsible for 26 of the 52 deaths in the coordinated wave of attacks on London's transport network in 2005, after detonating an explosive-filled rucksack on a Piccadilly Line Tube train at King's Cross Behind her notorious image is a woman, it has since emerged, who loves Beyonce and compiled shopping lists (complete with everyday British items such as Weetabix on it) while on the run. Lewthwaite is now 41 and a mother of four. Her eldest children, a boy and a girl by Lindsay, would be around 21 and 19; and her youngest children, also a boy and a girl by her late second husband, an Islamist terrorist she married in Africa, around 16 and 15. Her life since disappearing from Britain in the wake of the 7/7 bombings leaves many unanswered questions, with the result that Lewthwaite has reached almost mythical status. Where is she? How has she managed to evade capture for so long? Could she even be dead? The starting point to unpick the mythology is Kenya, where she still faces terrorism charges relating to four separate attacks in the country between 2012 and 2019 which killed 244 innocent people. Willis Oketch, an investigative reporter on the highly respected Standard, the oldest newspaper in the country, has been working alongside us to try to find answers. A senior security source he contacted on our behalf told him the 'White Widow' is very much alive and was seen in neighbouring Uganda as recently as last year. She is actually based in Somalia, he said, which also borders Kenya, where she is believed to be part of an al-Shabaab cell, the al-Qaeda affiliate with a stronghold in the failed state. 'Despite not knowing her exact location, we believe she is active in terrorism activities under al-Shabaab control in Somalia,' the security source told Oketch. Lewthwaite, he said, was the 'main financier' of the cell – a logistical role, in other words, controlling the money, not a frontline operative fighting alongside men with AK-47s and grenade-launchers. It has not been possible to verify this intelligence but it chimes with the few details we have learned about Lewthwaite down the years. Somalia is a logical place for her to hide out. With some areas of the country in anarchy, Lewthwaite, the subject of an international arrest warrant – with a high-priority 'red notice' – is beyond the reach of the Kenyan authorities and Western governments. Lewthwaite has certainly led a charmed life as one the world's most wanted women. Initially, she portrayed herself as another victim in the wake of the 7/7 bombings and said she had absolutely no knowledge of her husband's murderous plans. Yes, she was a Muslim convert – she met Lindsay, a 19-year-old, Jamaican-born carpet-fitter and convert himself – in an Islamic chatroom when she was 18, but in an interview with The Sun newspaper, for which she was paid £30,000, she called his actions 'abhorrent'. Police placed her in a safe house after their marital home in Aylesbury, the county town of Buckinghamshire, was torched in an arson attack. Yet the clues about where her real sympathies lay were there all along. Lewthwaite gave birth to her daughter shortly after the bombings. She was given the middle name Shahidah ('martyr' in Arabic). The child's older brother also had the male form, Shaheed, as a middle name. 'Samantha played dumb – I am just the wife,' former Metropolitan Police anti-terrorism officer David Videcette recalled when interviewed for the Netflix series, World's Most Wanted. 'I really pressed hard to have her arrested. I really wanted her on the suspect list. Sadly, the senior investigating officer felt there was not enough evidence to prosecute and the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service] were going to say 'no'. I massively regret that she got this opportunity to kill other people.' Lewthwaite left the country a free women with her children in 2008, and landed in Johannesburg, South Africa. Shortly afterwards she married for the second time. Husband number two, Fahmi Salim, the father of her two youngest offspring, was a Kenyan with family links to al-Qaeda and al-Shabaab. Five years after their wedding, David Videcette's worst fears materialised when masked gunmen ran amok at the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, murdering 71 people. Lewthwaite is accused of planning, funding or taking part in the outrage, along with a grenade attack on a bar in the coastal resort of Mombasa the previous year in 2012 (three dead); the 2015 massacre at Garissa University (148 dead); and, in 2019, she was also linked with a terrorist attack on a hotel in Nairobi (21 dead). More than 240 deaths in all have been linked to her, in other words. Al-Shabaab says Kenyan targets are legitimate because they voted for the government which has declared war on the group. It's hard to comprehend, even now, how a girl from the Home Counties, whose father served in Northern Ireland during the 1970s at the height of the Troubles (and whose paternal grandfather was also in the Armed Forces) could be implicated in so much bloodshed. Police fleetingly caught up with Lewthwaite when they got wind of imminent attacks which led them to a property in Mombasa in 2011. Hidden under a sofa, they found a haul of fuses and 60 rounds of ammunition with magazines of bullets for AK-47 assault rifles. They arrested a British man called Jermaine Grant at the scene who was later jailed but who named Lewthwaite as the senior member of the cell. 'There is someone much bigger you want,' he told them when he was seized. Police discovered she was in the adjacent apartment – the flats shared the same balcony – but the passport they found was in the name of Natalie Faye Webb, a 26-year-old nurse from Southend-on-Sea, so they left. By the time they realised their 'mistake' – that the passport was a fake and Miss Webb had been the victim of identity theft – Samantha Lewthwaite had fled. It was the last confirmed sighting of her. Once again, the 'White Widow', as she would soon become known, managed to escape justice. This is the official version of events which was reported in the media at the time, but her getaway was more controversial, it seems, at least by Western standards. Reporter Willis Oketch was given a different account of what is alleged to have happened. He says the officers in question found Lewthwaite, aka Natalie Webb, playing with her children when they first entered her accommodation around midnight. They said they thought she was 'innocent' of any involvement with Grant and another accomplice who was also taken into custody. Or so they reported, when they got back to the station. But they were strongly suspected of accepting five million Kenyan dollars (nearly £30,000) from Lewthwaite on the night, which she produced from her handbag, security sources have now told Oketch – an allegation, which, it should be stressed, remains unproven. 'She left the flat immediately afterwards,' he said. 'Officers returned the following day after anti-terrorist officers in the UK told them who she was. 'Several posh houses in the Nyali and Shanzu districts of the city were searched but she was nowhere to be found.' Police discovered Lewthwaite subsequently got out of Kenya with the help of a police informer – a woman – who was the widow of a Kenyan terrorist killed in Somalia. It is unclear whether she slipped back into the country again for the attack at the Westgate mall in Nairobi in 2013 or simply helped organise and fund the terror campaign from outside. Either way, what Samantha Lewthwaite left behind in her Mombasa apartment in her hurry to escape has not been widely reported and provides a tantalising glimpse into her psyche. Among her discarded possessions was her laptop which revealed a browsing history of any ordinary young women including websites for hair, make-up, fashion, weight loss – and There was a handwritten journal in which she tells herself to 'look fabulous' for social occasions, along with a typical weekly shopping list: '32 eggs, 12 cheese, Weetabix, orange juice and tuna ...' Yet the same journal contains a 32-line ode to Osama bin Laden, and she also gives thanks for having a husband – it's not clear whether she is referring to Lindsay or Salim, who is also thought to be dead now – 'that would go forth, give all he could for Allah and live a life of terrorising the disbelievers'. What of her children? They would be following in their parents bloody footsteps, judging by this paragraph in her scribblings. 'Recently, my beloved husband [Salim] gave a talk to my eight-year-old son and five-year-old daughter,' she wrote. 'He asked them what do you want to be when you are older? Both had many answers but both agreed to one of wanting to be a mujahid [a person engaged in jihad].' The trail has now gone cold, aside from the fact that she is thought to be somewhere in Somalia. Omar Mahmood is a senior analyst and Somalia security expert with the International Crisis Group (ICG) think-tank. 'I think there is definitely a degree of legend in the Samantha Lewthwaite story,' he told the Mail this week. Two things he said, however, complement what journalist Willis Oketch was told by security sources in Kenya. Firstly, he does not think reports that she may have been killed in a drone strike are credible. 'A death, particularly that of a woman like Samantha Lewthwaite, is hard to keep quiet in Somalia – al-Shabaab makes propaganda out of such strikes.' Secondly, the role of women in al-Shabaab, says Mahmood, is consistent with the position she is believed to occupy in the terror group. 'Women often help organise finances and accounts, as well as carrying communications back and forth as they attract less suspicion crossing government and al-Shabaab lines in Somalia [they are in conflict with each other]', he said. Members of Lewthwaite's family still live in Aylesbury. At her uncle's house, a woman who answered the door said she understood the interest of the Press, as it was the anniversary of the bombings, but politely declined to comment. There is a photograph of Samantha Lewthwaite, before she converted, attending an end-of-year ball at her school that is still circulating. She is wearing a pink silk gown set off by a diamond tiara and matching gold earrings and necklace. 'She was a perfectly normal teenager with normal friends,' said Niknam Hussain, who has been a councillor in Aylesbury since 1999 and knew her well. 'I can't believe I am still talking about her as one of the world's most wanted women 20 years on.'
Daily Mail
07-07-2025
- Daily Mail
The shy Home Counties schoolgirl who became the world's most wanted woman: How the White Widow of the 7/7 terror attacks has evaded capture for 20 years and is linked to the slaughter of more than 200 people
Decked out in a pink ball gown, chunky gold earrings and a sparkling tiara, she could be any happy, ordinary schoolgirl on the cusp of adulthood. Glancing at this photo of Samantha Lewthwaite enjoying an end-of-year ball at her school in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, it's hard to imagine the dark journey she was about to embark on. Lewthwaite gained notoriety as the wife of 19-year-old Germaine Lindsay, who killed 26 people - including himself - when he blew himself up on the London Underground during the 7/7 bombings on July 7, 2005. Now a member of Somali terror group al-Shabab and widely known as 'the White Widow', she's been linked to more than 240 murders in a string of suicide attacks across Africa. An Interpol 'Red Notice' was first issued for her arrest in 2013 after the Westgate Mall attack in Kenya, which left five Britons and 66 other people dead and injured around 200 others. Lewthwaite has also been linked to a grenade attack on a Mombasa bar that killed three football fans watching an England game in 2012, and the murder of 148 people at a Kenyan university in 2015. Four years later, she was also accused of helping to plot a terrorist attack on a hotel in Nairobi that claimed 22 lives. Yet despite two decades having passed since 7/7, this white, Christian-born daughter of a former British soldier has never been brought before a court. Lewthwaite was born in County Down, Northern Ireland, in 1983 - the daughter of an English truck driver who previously served with the British Army during the Troubles. The photo of her at a school ball was taken in 2001, shortly before her conversion to Islam at the age of 17. Nothing stuck out about Lewthwaite during her childhood, with Raj Khan - who knew her as a child and went on to become mayor of Aylesbury - remembering her as 'an average, British, young, ordinary girl'. 'She didn't have very good confidence - there was nothing that made me worried about her,' he previously recalled. One classmate at The Grange School described her as a model student who was popular with teachers. The man, who was in the same religious education class as her, said: 'From when I first met her she was interested in the religion, she knew a lot about it. 'She never mentioned anything about converting to me but I think it was where everyone knew she was going. 'I think certain people can be easily brainwashed. With her home situation and her parents breaking up, she probably needed something to cling on to and she's gone down the wrong side.' Lewthwaite was born in County Down, Northern Ireland , in 1983 - the daughter of an English truck driver who previously served with the British Army during the Troubles Following her conversion to Islam, it appears Lewthwaite fell under the influence of hate preacher Trevor Forrest, or Sheikh Abdullah el-Faisal. Friends believe she was also badly affected by her parents divorce when she was aged 11. After taking the name Sherafiyah, she moved to London, where in September 2002 she enrolled on a degree course in politics and religions at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. She dropped out after two months. Lewthwaite first made contact with her future husband Germaine Lindsay on an online chat room before their first face-to-face meeting at a a Stop The War march. They married in October 2002 and had a son in April 2004. Lewthwaite was heavily pregnant with their second child when her husband blew himself up in 2007. Exploiting her sympathetic image as a young mother, Lewthwaite hid her terrorist sympathies and expressed her 'horror' at what Lindsay had done. She is believed to have left the UK for South Africa in 2008, before returning a year later to have her third third, Abdur-Rahman, at Stoke Mandeville Hospital. The father was listed as Fahmi Salim, a Kenyan with family links to Al-Qaeda. Shortly afterwards she returned to South Africa, where her fourth child, Surajah was born in July 2010. An Interpol 'Red Notice' was first issued for her arrest in 2013 after the Westgate Mall attack in Kenya, which left five Britons and 66 other people dead and injured around 200 others For a time, Lewthwaite is believed to have posed as Natalie Faye Webb, a British nurse whose identity she stole. Her other rumoured husbands include Abdi Wahid, a Kenyan naval officer turned terrorist, and Hassan Maalim Ibrahim a senior member of al-Shabaab, which is based in Somalia but has staged attacks across East Africa. Lewthwaite reportedly spent seven years with Ibrahim before splitting from him and fleeing to Yemen. Intelligence services believe she is living in a jihadi-sympathising stronghold, where she wears a full niqab and gloves to conceal her identity. 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. Her Interpol Red Notice lists her as wanted for being in possession of explosives and for conspiracy to commit a felony. Controversially, her sordid story is now set to be made into a film, The Girl Next Door, starring The Last of Us star Bella Ramsey. While little has been heard of Lewthwaite for the last six years, there is hope that her former flatmate, Jermaine Grant, could shed light on her whereabouts. Grant was arrested by Kenyan authorities in 2011 after they found bomb-making materials in his flat in Mombasa. He was deported back to Britain last year and could remain behind bars until 2027 unless he is deemed fit for release. An intelligence source previously told MailOnline that Grant may feel he could help win his early release by providing information that could help in the hunt for Lewthwaite. They said: 'If he has any information at all that could help in the hunt for Lewthwaite, who has consistently evaded the authorities, it would be invaluable.'
