White Widow Samantha Lewthwaite 'killed by sniper in Ukraine'

"martin14" said
If they show a body, I will buy a nice bottle of Russian vodka.

Not holding my breath.

Britain is seeking to verify shock claims that she was gunned down by pro-Moscow rebel forces near the eastern town of Debaltsevo, as reported by Regnum news agency in Moscow.

However, a senior intelligence officer in East Africa said yesterday 'all the evidence is she remains in Africa, we have not seen any evidence she is in Ukraine - dead or alive', while a Western intelligence source said 'Ukraine is not really an obvious destination for a jihadi, to say the least'.

And Dr Igor Sutyagin, Senior Research Fellow in Russian Studies at defence think tank the Royal United Services Institute, said he was highly dubious of the claims.

He told MailOnline: 'Why would the rebels hold on to this information for two weeks? And why have they not presented the body? And how would they know it's her? The agency that produced this story is a bit mad. The timing of the news is suspicious. Only when there's a new wave of sanctions from the West do they publish something, to cast themselves in a better light.'

The journalist behind the story, Alexey Toporov, a supporter of the separatists, today claimed: 'It is said that her death was not quick - which was the right way to do it.'

His words implied that the 30-year-old jihadist suffered a lingering death after being shot by 'a young but already experienced sniper volunteer from Russia'.

The journalist, Regnum News Agency and rebel forces in eastern Ukraine have failed so far to provide any convincing evidence for her presence in the country, or of her death.

Toporov claimed that Lewthwaite used a South African passport in a fake name - Natalie Faye Webb - to enter Ukraine.

He published an image of the passport, stating: 'Here are the fake documents the White Widowused in order to get into Ukraine.'



However the identical image of the passport he highlighted has been published previously, including by MailOnline - suggesting he did not have access to it in Ukraine.

Nor is it clear how the rebels knew her identity.

Dr Sutyagin added that the claim she's dead is also suspicious because the pro-Kiev Aidar battalion Regnum claimed she's fighting for operates around 60 miles from Debaltsevo, where she reportedly died.

He said: 'Either she did not fight with them, or she was killed elsewhere - or the whole story is fake.'

His suspicion is that the pro-Putin agency that released the story is trying to suggest that the Kiev government is allied with known terrorists.

He said: 'Regnum is a propaganda outlet that's known for its wild anti-Kiev attitudes. It's just sensation.'

A Western intelligence source said: 'We believed she�s somewhere in the east Africa region, if she�s still alive. But to be honest she�s not a high priority. There are countless other people higher up in the food chain, people who are active on operational and finance matters. She is more of an oddity, a curiosity. Obviously there�s a lot of media interest in the UK for obvious reasons, but she doesn�t cause me sleepless nights.'

'If she turned up in Pakistan, in Yemen, in Syria� maybe, but Ukraine is not really an obvious destination for a jihadi, to say the least.'

A Kenyan security source said she's probably in Somalia.

He said: 'The last confirmed information on her whereabouts was a few years ago [in 2011]. We got close to arresting her but she went to ground. She�s still at large � maybe in Somalia with Al-Shabab, but there is no concrete information.'

In the past few years Lewthwaite has been variously reported as being seen riding a camel in Somalia, as well as across the other side of Africa, in Nigeria.

But there has been no confirmed sightings since she gave Kenyan police the slip in Mombasa in 2011, reportedly using her false South African passport.

In August detectives hunting Lewthwaite were ordered to appear in court Thursday in the port city Mombasa after failing to heed previous summons to provide updates on their search.

'We have tried to arrest her, but she keeps on changing her identity and location,' said Abednego Kilonzo, a police chief inspector, said in a statement at the time.

'She must have a new name from the previous ones,' the statement added.

Toporov claimed today on a social media site that Lewthwaite was deployed as a sniper in Donetsk region.

'The White Widow ended in a bad way. To be more exact, she ended up killing people.

'This viper, who organised the attack on a shopping centre in Nairobi where people including women and children were shot dead because they could not tell the name of Muhammad's first wife, was using false name and fighting in Donbass.

'She was a sniper in one of the (Ukrainian) punishment battalions, supposedly Aidar. She killed many of our guys.

'At the end, she was shot by a young but already very experienced sniper volunteer from Russia.

'He did not even care for the $5million USD promised by Interpol for the head of this viper. '

The journalist, a former editor from Kazan, capital of the Russian republic of Tatarstan, has campaigned against radical Muslims.
Reports last month claimed Lewthwaite - a former soldier's daughter - joined Islamic State earlier this year and became one of the most powerful women in the network
+7

Reports last month claimed Lewthwaite - a former soldier's daughter - joined Islamic State earlier this year and became one of the most powerful women in the network
The White Widow's temporary Nairobi lair (Archive)

Last year he was involved in a street fight with an alleged extremist Tatar Muslim figure.

This year he served as press officer for the self-styled Lugansk People's Republic in rebel-held eastern Ukraine.

He quit and went back to Russia, but has now returned to Lugansk as a journalist.

The extraordinary unconfirmed claim came amid a welter of propaganda from Moscow and Kiev over the Ukrainian crisis.

The claim that Lewthwaite is dead came as Russia massed armour and troops in Ukraine.

Nato yesterday warned that Russian military equipment is entering the country on a large-scale.