Who is the 'White Widow'?

Official: A woman may have been among attackers, but identity unknown

Samantha Lewthwaite was married to one of the bombers who attacked London in 2005

She is wanted by the Kenyan authorities, who say she is the "White Widow"

They say she became part of a terror cell linked to the Somali group Al-Shabaab

(CNN) -- British-born Samantha Lewthwaite was once seen as a kind of victim of the July 2005 London terror attacks -- the pregnant wife of one of the suicide bombers who killed 52 people, now left alone to care for her children.

She condemned the attacks but then vanished. Now, Kenyan authorities say, she is the infamous "White Widow," alleged to be a supporter and financier of people linked to the Somali terror group Al-Shabaab.

Reports that a white woman was among the terrorists who stormed Nairobi, Kenya's, upscale Westgate Shopping Mall on Saturday -- an operation for which Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility -- have prompted a slew of media speculation that she might have been involved.

But no official confirmation has been given. A senior Kenyan government official said a woman was among the attackers. Yet it is "impossible," based on the government's photo evidence (and before a forensics examination is complete), to determine who that might be.

Attackers defeated in mall siege, Kenya's president says

Relatives of Johnny Mutinda Musango, 48, weep after identifying his body at the city morgue in Nairobi, Kenya, on Tuesday, September 24. Musango was one of the victims of the Westgate Mall hostage siege. Kenyan security forces were still combing the mall on the fourth day of the siege by al Qaeda-linked terrorists.

Ann Gakii reacts at the Nairobi City Mortuary after identifying the body of her father, who was killed in the mall attack on Saturday.

A Kenyan soldier runs through a corridor on an upper floor at the Westgate Shopping Mall in Nairobi, Kenya, on September 24, shortly before an explosion was heard. Sounds of heavy gunfire erupted from the mall Tuesday, even as authorities said they had the building under their control. But four days after Al-Shabaab terrorists stormed the swanky mall, several gunmen -- including snipers -- were still inside, two senior officials said.

Kenyan Defense Forces walk near the mall on Monday, September 23.

Kenyan Defense Forces leave the mall on September 23.

Stephen, center, is comforted by relatives as he waits for the post mortem exam of his father, who was killed in Saturday's attack at the mall.

A Kenyan police officer guards the entrance of a building near the mall on September 23.

A Kenyan security officer takes cover as gunfire and explosions are heard from the mall on September 23.

Heavy smoke rises from the Westgate Shopping Mall on September 23.

Medics take cover behind a tree as gunfire and explosions are heard from the Westgate Mall on September 23.

A Kenyan police security officer runs for cover as heavy smoke rises from the mall on September 23.

A paramedic runs for cover outside the mall on September 23.

People run for cover outside the mall after heavy shooting started on September 23.

Kenyan security forces crouch behind a wall outside the mall on September 23.

Soldiers take cover after gunfire near the mall on September 23.

Kenyan paramilitary police officers patrol the area near the mall on Sunday, September 22.

Soldiers from the Kenya Defense Forces arrive outside the Westgate Mall on September 22.

A woman shields a baby as a soldier stands guard inside the Westgate Mall on Saturday, September 21.

A rescue worker helps a child outside the mall.

People who had been hiding inside the mall during the gunfire flee the scene.

An armed official takes a shooting position inside the mall.

An armed official crouches on September 21.

Bodies lie on the ground inside the mall.

Men help a wounded woman outside the mall.

Officials carry an injured man in the mall.

Soldiers move up stairs inside the Westgate Mall.

Armed police leave after entering the mall. At least one suspect has been killed, a government official said. Police have said another suspected gunman has been detained at a Nairobi hospital.

Armed police take cover behind escalators as smoke fills the air. Witnesses say tear gas was thrown in the corridors.

A woman who had been hiding during the attack runs for cover after armed police enter the mall.

A body is seen on the floor inside the smoke-filled four-story mall.

An injured person is helped on arrival at the Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi after the attack at the upscale mall.

A soldier directs people up a stairway inside the Westgate on September 21.

An injured man is wheeled into the Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi.

People run from the Westgate Mall.

A Kenyan woman is helped to safety after the masked gunmen stormed the upscale mall and sprayed gunfire on shoppers and staff.

Crowds gather outside the upscale shopping mall. The interior ministry urges Kenyans to keep off the roads near the mall so police can ensure everyone inside has been evacuated to safety.

A policeman carries a baby to safety. Authorities said multiple shooters were at the scene.

Bodies lie outside the shopping mall.

A security officer helps a wounded woman outside.

Elaine Dang of San Diego is helped to safety after the attack. The military asked local media not to televise anything live because the gunmen are watching the screens in the mall.

Paramedics treat an injured man outside the mall.

Medical personnel carry a body away.

A body lies outside the mall. Gunmen shot people outside the mall as they entered it

A woman is pulled by a shopping cart to an ambulance.

A wounded man is escorted outside the mall.

A police officer carries a baby as people keep low and run to safety. Crowds dashed down the streets as soldiers in military fatigues, guns cocked, crawled under cars to get closer to the mall.

People run away from the scene.

Armed Kenyan forces take position to secure the area around the shopping mall as ambulances move in to carry the injured.

A woman reacts after she is rescued from the mall.

A couple flee the area. As night fell, authorities said they had cornered the gunmen in the mall.

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Lewthwaite, born in Buckinghamshire, England, earned her nickname as the widow of Germaine Lindsay, one of the four suicide bombers who attacked London's transportation system on July 7, 2005.

Now age 29, Lewthwaite met Lindsay, a British Muslim, when she was 17, according to the Daily Mail. A convert to Islam, she married him in 2002.

After the London attacks, she denied having knowledge of the plans. Later, Kenyan authorities said, she emerged in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa and became part of a terror cell linked to Al-Shabaab.

In December 2011, Kenyan authorities raided three homes in Mombasa, including one allegedly used by Lewthwaite, and arrested some people on suspicion of planning to destroy a bridge, a ferry and hotels frequented by Western tourists.

At Lewthwaite's residence, investigators found the kind of bomb-making materials that were used in the London attacks, Kenyan counterterror police said. But Lewthwaite was not found.

A security guard who spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity in 2012 said he saw a white woman leave the residence hours before the raid. Authorities have yet to catch up to her.

Kenyan authorities also suspect Lewthwaite of hatching a plot to break fellow Briton Jermaine Grant out of jail after he was arrested in connection with the alleged Mombasa plot.

'An innocent young person'

But in the English town of Aylesbury, in Buckinghamshire, where Lewthwaite lived with Lindsay for a time, she is remembered by local councilor Raj Khan as a good, helpful woman.

"She was an innocent young person," said Khan, who said he knew Lewthwaite as a "family friend" before the July 2005 bombings.

"She would do anything to accommodate other people. She was a very good human being. She did everything to help others."

He warned against judging her based on rumors and speculation.

"I'm worried that the picture that has been demonizing her may be premature because it has not been substantiated," he said. "Unless there is hard evidence, we should not just unnecessarily jump to conclusions."

Lewthwaite also reportedly spent time in Banbridge, in Northern Ireland, where her grandmother, Elizabeth Allen, still lives.

Resilient spirit of Kenyan people

A family friend, local councilor Joan Baird, said Monday that Allen was elderly and ill, and had been "in and out of hospital."

This speculation about her granddaughter is upsetting, Baird said.

"This is very distressing for all the family, a decent family. And it got worse with the news (from Kenya). It's also very distressing for the people of Banbridge, on behalf of the family," she said.

According to the Belfast Telegraph, Lewthwaite's father was a British soldier posted to the area who married a local woman.

'Very unusual'

Kenyan officials have given differing accounts of the involvement of a white woman in the Westgate Mall attack.

Senior Kenyan intelligence officials told CNN that surveillance video from inside the mall appeared to show such a woman taking part in the attack. Analysts believe she is British, the sources said.

Kenyan Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed told "PBS NewsHour" on Monday that a British woman was among the attackers. "She has, I think, done this many times before," she said of the woman but did not name the suspect.

Kenyan State House spokesman Manoah Esipisu told CNN that "multiple witnesses" have said they saw a woman among the attackers.

"We have also been told that if it is the same woman that they say they saw, that she would have been killed very early on in the attack," he said.

But he cautioned, "We don't know for sure that we had a woman. And secondly, because of the bodies trapped under the rubble, we don't know if she is who everyone says she might be."

Kenyan Interior Minister Joseph Ole Lenku previously told reporters that all the attackers were men. Some of them apparently had dressed as women, he said.

But on Wednesday, he revisited the speculation that a woman was involved, saying that authorities were "hearing possibilities and information," including from the public. "We want to again request you to allow the forensic experts to determine whether that is true," he said.

Female involvement in such an attack would be "very unusual," said CNN security analyst Peter Bergen.

"Typically these groups are misogynist," he said. "Their view is the woman should be in a home and shrouded in a body veil."

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CNN's Zain Verjee, Claudia Rebaza, Matthew Chance and Peter Taggart contributed to this report.