'White Widow' – The New Face Of Terror

The woman in a full-length burka walked calmly into the drab government office. She moved close to the desk behind which an administrator was shuffling his papers. Others queued around her. Suddenly, without warning, she detonated the suicide vest she was wearing. The explosion flashed a brilliant white on the grainy CCTV before the cameras cut out, obliterating everything – and everyone – in the room.

I was shown this horrifying footage on a training course in advance of a trip to Helmand Province last year. The message was simple: there are no rules of engagement; the attacks can come at any time and from anyone. And the changing face of terrorism has become all too clear amid the rubble of Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall, where last Saturday al-Shabaab militants stormed the building and murdered at least 67 people of all creeds and colour (five of them British). The estimated 10 to 15 fighters reportedly killed hostages using guns, knives and bombs over the four-day siege.

Some witnesses have described a “pale-skinned woman” issuing orders and firing at hostages. In the chaos that has followed, nobody has been able to verify the claims. But what we do know is that British terrorist suspect Samantha Lewthwaite, a 29-year-old soldier’s daughter from Buckinghamshire, is now one of the most wanted women in the world. On Thursday, an international arrest warrant for Lewthwaite, known as the “White Widow”, was circulated in 190 countries at Kenya’s request. The Interpol Red Notice specifies that Lewthwaite is wanted only in connection with her alleged role in a plot to bomb hotels in Mombasa in December 2011. Whether or not she had anything to do with the Westgate attacks has yet to be determined.

Lewthwaite converted to Islam at 15, after developing a crush on a Muslim boy. Later she became more radical and married Germaine Lindsay, one of the 7/7 London suicide bombers. Following that attack, she disappeared abroad with her three children. After spells in South Africa and Kenya, she is now believed to be based in Somalia, the heartland of al-Shabaab.

The images released by Interpol of Lewthwaite in full make-up, shrouded in a black headscarf, or staring up from a false South African passport still have the power to shock, even if we have become used to women initiating acts of terror. Where once secular militant groups were fighting primarily in the name of securing a nationalist identity, now cells are plotting to kill indiscriminately in the name of religion. Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups recognise the value of recruiting women as jihadists. 

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