Nairobi Westgate Shopping Mall Attack

http://bit.ly/18fSEN8

British security sources have said this morning that there is a “possibility” that Samantha Lewthwaite, the “white widow,” was involved in the attack on Westgate Shopping Centre. She is the widow of 7/7 bomber Jermaine Lindsay. The British born mother of three is known to be in East Africa and is wanted by Kenyan police over alleged links to a terrorist cell that planned to bomb the country’s coast.

Kenya Defence Forces soldiers take their position at the Westgate shopping centre on Tuesday. Al-Shabaab has claimed they are still holding a number of hostages in the mall and that two fighters are alive. Heavy gunfire was heard this morning.Picture: Noor Khamis/Reuters

Four large blasts rocked Nairobi’s Westgate Mall, sending large plumes of smoke over the city’s suburbs as Kenyan military forces sought to rescue an unknown number of hostages held by al-Qaida-linked militants. The explosions were followed by volleys of gunfire, then a thick, dark column of smoke. Military and police helicopters and one plane circled over the Nairobi mall, giving the affluent Westlands neighborhood the feel of a war zone.Picture: AP Photo/ Jerome Delay

Smoke rises from the Westgate Shopping Centre in Nairobi following a string of explosions during the third day of a stand-off between Kenyan security forces and gunmen inside the buildingPicture: REUTERS/Siegfried Modola

Two photo journalists take cover outside the Westgate Mall in NaorobiPicture: AP Photo/Sayyid Azim

forces’ efforts the previous day to rescue the unknown number of hostages inside failed despite the military announcing that most hostages had been saved

At the Oshwal Centre next to the mall, the Red Cross was using a squat concrete structure that houses a Hindu temple as a triage centre. Medical workers attended to at least two wounded Kenyan soldiers there on Monday.Picture: AP Photo/Sayyid Azim

Local and foreign television crews line up behind a police cordon at the end of a street leading to the Westgate Mall in NairobiPicture: AP Photo/Ben Curtis

Hundreds of people queue to donate blood to the injured victims of the attack on a shopping mall at a temporary donation centre at Uhuru Park grounds in NairobiPicture: REUTERS/Noor Khamis
http://bit.ly/18fSEN8