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British national arrested by Kenya Police in Westgate Mall attack aftermath
Nairobi’s Westgate Mall. PHOTO/Westgate Premier Mall Inc.
A British national has been arrested in Nairobi following the bloody attack on the Westgate shopping mall by the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab Islamists, a spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said on Wednesday.
“We can confirm the detention of a British national in Nairobi and we are making contact to offer standard consular assistance,” she told reporters.
The spokeswoman declined to say whether the arrest was directly linked to the attack on the Westgate mall in which 67 people were killed.
The Foreign Office also declined to say if the person detained was a man or a woman.
Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs Amina Mohamed said on Monday that a British woman was among the attackers, although this contradicted earlier statements from Kenyan officials who said they were all male.
The British Foreign Office spokeswoman said: “We are aware of these reports that a British national was among the terrorists and we’re looking into them, but we are not going to speculate on that.”
International newspapers have speculated that Samantha Lewthwaite, a 29-year-old British Muslim convert known as the “White Widow”, was involved in the attack.
Lewthwaite, whose husband was one of the suicide bombers who attacked London’s transport network in 2005, is wanted by Kenyan police for alleged involvement with al-Shabaab, which has claimed responsibility for the Nairobi attack.
Intelligence chiefs have warned for some time about British Muslims travelling to Somalia and Yemen for terrorist training.
Jermaine Grant, a 30-year-old Muslim convert from London, is currently on trial in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa accused of ties to the al-Shabaab and plotting attacks.
Grant was arrested in December 2011 in possession of chemicals, batteries and switches that prosecutors claim were intended to make explosives. It is suspected that he worked with Lewthwaite.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta announced an end to the 80-hour bloodbath in Nairobi late Tuesday, with the loss of 61 civilians and six members of the security forces.
He said five attackers were killed and 11 suspects detained.
Copyright 2013 AFP