"White Widow" destroyed or just a media war?

(Baonghean) - From a shy girl living in Aylesbury Town (Buckinghamshire, England), Samantha Lewthwaite converted to Islam, married a terrorist at the age of 17 and became the most wanted woman in the world. While her whereabouts were still extremely mysterious, yesterday, the Russian news agency Regnum reported that "White Widow" Samantha Lewthwaite was killed in Ukraine. Is this true or just part of the media war between Russia - Kiev and the West related to the current tensions in Ukraine?

When people who knew Samantha Lewthwaite talk about her, they only remember her as a naive, insecure and shy child. Samantha is the daughter of Andy Lewthwaite, a soldier serving in the British Royal Army. She spent her childhood in her hometown in Northern Ireland. Samantha then moved to Aylesbury Town when she was in primary school. At the age of 15, she converted to Islam and was very serious about it. Samantha was interested in religious issues. She took a course in politics and religion at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London in 2002. However, she dropped out after 2 months.

And not long after, she married Jermaine Lindsay, also a Muslim, after meeting him on social media. 2005 was considered a year full of events and a turning point in her life, when her husband Jermaine Lindsay participated in a suicide bombing in London (UK) that killed 52 people. Although she immediately condemned this action with very strong words and said that it was "disgusting" and "he was poisoned by extremist Islamic thoughts". But just a short time after the horrific event caused by her husband, and then the birth of her second child, widow Samantha Lewthwaite disappeared.

“The White Widow” Samantha Lewthwaite.

In the following years, the widow's whereabouts remained a mystery because she always moved between countries in the black continent with many different passports. More than a year ago (September 2013), Samantha Lewthwaite was suspected of being involved in the terrorist attack and hostage-taking that lasted for 4 days by Islamic gunmen at the Westgate Shopping Center in Kenya, killing 72 people, mostly civilians. Afterwards, the Al-Shabab Islamic rebel group in Somalia claimed responsibility for the incident and Samantha Lewthwaite was also believed to have fled Kenya to Somalia - the headquarters of Al-Shabab. After this incident, the British woman was issued a red alert by Interpol - the highest level.

Not stopping there, earlier this year, information about the "White Widow" once again attracted public attention. That is, Samantha Lewthwaite is said to have joined the self-proclaimed Islamic State IS organization with the task of training and imparting experience to British girls who converted to Islam and many other white women serving IS and teaching them how to commit suicide bombings. In addition, the video clips that IS posted on YouTube about the gruesome beheading of hostages are also said to have been produced by Samantha Lewthwaite, including the case of two American journalists and a British aid worker. The reason the above suspicions are based on her strength in the ability to use media tools for propaganda.

While the whereabouts of the "White Widow" are still a mystery, recently, the Russian news agency Regnum reported that the "White Widow" Samantha Lewthwaite was killed in Ukraine when she came here to fight against separatist forces in the East. The Russian news agency confirmed that it had information and evidence that the "White Widow" was taking on a sniper position for the Aidar Volunteer Battalion of the Ukrainian Army by a Russian sniper who volunteered to fight in Luhansk City. Although it did not specify the exact location or context of the killing of the world's most wanted woman, the Regnum news agency added that Ukrainian special forces are currently offering a reward of nearly 1 million USD for the life of this gunman.

However, this is one-sided information given by Russia in the context of the media war and the war on the ground in the Eastern Ukraine region that is very unpredictable. Some Western experts believe that it is very possible that the information about the death of the "White Widow" is just an attempt by Russia to distract public opinion. Because in the past few weeks, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe OSCE and NATO have continuously accused Moscow of sending "cohorts of tanks, artillery, air defense systems and Russian troops massively into Eastern Ukraine".

The truth about the death of the "White Widow" is not yet known, because this information still needs time to verify. But if this is true, Samantha Lewthwaite's service in the Ukrainian army will certainly cause the Kiev government a lot of trouble, even losing the trust not only of the people, but also of close allies who have long been the "midwife" for the pro-Western trend in this country. Because as mentioned, this widow is the most wanted person in the world related to terrorism, to the Islamic State IS that the West and the US are trying to destroy. And if this is just a simple media war as often happens, with the parties accusing each other, discrediting each other between Russia - Kiev and the West, along with the tensions on the ground, it will push the East to the brink of war; because according to sources in the East, at the present time, the parties involved have all made "very active" preparations and the bullets have been loaded.

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