The International Police Agency is searching for a British woman dubbed the "White Widow" in connection to the Kenya mall attack on Sept. 21.
Interpol has issued an arrest warrant for 29-year-old Samantha Lewthwaite, according to TIME magazine. Lewthwaite is wanted on charges of "possessing explosives and conspiracy to commit a felony in December 2011." She is also accused of plotting to hotels and restaurants in Kenya. (Click here to view photos of Lewthwaite)
Authorities believe the British national is connected to the Nairobi Westgate Mall attack. She was nicknamed the "white widow" because of her marriage to the suicide bomber Germaine Lindsay. Time reports Lindsay "blew up a train on the London Underground at King's Cross in 2005, killing 26 people."
"By requesting an Interpol Red Notice, Kenya has activated a global 'tripwire' for this fugitive," Interpol Secretary General Ronald K. Noble told CNN. "Through the Interpol Red Notice, Kenyan authorities have ensured that all 190 member countries are aware of the danger posed by this woman, not just across the region but also worldwide."
Al-Shabaab terrorists are reportedly responsible for the shooting spree at the Westgate mall on Saturday. According to CNN, 67 people were killed and 63 people remain missing.
BBC journalist Peter Taylor said that Lewthwaite had become an almost "mythological" figure until she showed up again in Kenya.
"She disappeared off the radar and turns up again in Kenya," Taylor told a BBC program, TIME reports. "It would appear she became involved with al-Shabab to fight jihad as her husband believed he was doing when he bombed the Tube."
TIME reports the "white widow" remarried in East Africa.
"She was an average British, young, ordinary girl," local councilor Raj Khan, who knew Lewthwaite's family socially in Aylesbury, told the Irish Independent. "She had a very great personality. She didn't have very good confidence. She was not strong-headed and that's why I find it absolutely amazing that she is supposed to be the head of an international criminal terrorist organization."
