British woman kidnapped in Kenya 'will be used as human shield by Al Qaeda'

• Local man arrested in connection with the kidnapping
• Speculation kidnappers were tipped off about Britons' arrival
• Friends of family reveal Mrs Tebbutt is deaf and wears double hearing aid
• Only child Oliver said to be 'devastated' by the tragic events
• No ransom demand for Mrs Tebbutt has yet been received

By Sam Greenhill

Last updated at 9:51 PM on 14th September 2011

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Investigators hunting kidnapped British tourist Judith Tebbutt were last night checking claims Islamist fanatics are threatening to use her as a ‘human shield’.
An Al Qaeda-linked group in Somalia claimed she was being held to deter further attacks after a U.S. drone bombed their base 11 days ago, killing dozens of suspected terrorists.
The Islamists, styling themselves as terror group Ras Kamboni, also threatened to parade their terrified hostage as a trophy at a press conference, it was reported.

Desperate hunt: The officers pace the beach as an armed guard sits in the background

War-torn: A gunman in the streets of Kismayo, the southern Somali city where Islamist insurgents are believed to be holding Judith Tebbutt

Mrs Tebbutt, 56, has been missing since Saturday night when a gang raided the beach hut in exclusive Kenyan resort Kiwayu Safari Village, where she was staying with her publisher husband David, 58.
He was shot dead before they whisked her by speedboat towards Somalia, just 18 miles away.

 

More...

• BRIG. ALLAN MALLINSON: Can our overstretched special forces really rescue Mrs Tebbut?
• Travel industry seeks to reassure holidaymakers after Kenya kidnapping
• Missing three-year-old boy returned to family FOUR DAYS after kidnapping
• Brave or bonkers? The couple kidnapped by Somali pirates who are planning on going back to sea

David Cameron said yesterday the Government was ‘doing everything we possibly can on this desperately tragic case’. Scotland Yard and British intelligence officers were assessing the claims of Ras Kamboni, a faction of the Al Shabaab group controlling southern Somalia.

Help with the search: British officials, believed to be from Scotland Yard, on the beach at the Kiwayu Resort, in Kenya

Executed: British holidaymaker David Tebbutt, left, was killed by a single gunshot to the chest. His son, Oliver, right, is said to be devastated and concerned that his mother's hearing difficulty will compound her suffering

The gang offered no proof as to whether they were truly holding the mother-of-one. 
But Shielk Abdul Rahman Dehere, one of its leaders, claimed she was  seized in answer to an attack from an U.S. drone on one of its weapons stores in Kismayo, 328 miles south-west of Somali capital Mogadishu.

Luxury: Rooms at the Kiwayu resort cost up to £900 a night in high season

He said: ‘We do not wish to harm her, we would not kill an innocent woman… but any further attack of force, we will kill the lady.’
Dehere spoke in a telephone call to a Somali Nairobi-based journalist who built links with Al Shabaab during the kidnapping of Britons Paul and Rachel Chandler. He added: ‘The lady is not feeling well.
She is not talking. She is finding it hard to speak. Her health is good but she is traumatised.’
Separately, an Al Shabaab radio broadcast claimed that it was the group holding Mrs Tebbutt, and that her husband had been killed because he refused to obey their orders.
No ransom demand has been received, and no trace found in Kenya of Mrs Tebbutt.
The social worker, who wears a hearing aid, was reportedly taken to Marka, an Al Shabaab heartland 45 miles south west of Mogadishu.
She is said to have been moved at least twice since then.
The Somalia Report news agency claimed she would be paraded at a ‘press conference’, an ordeal suffered several times by the Chandlers.
Yesterday Al Shabaab denied having anything to do with the murder and kidnapping, but made no mention of its shadowy faction Ras Kamboni. Experts say no pirate could operate in southern Somalia without Al Shabaab’ s authority.

Remote: The beachside cabin at the Kiwayu Safari Village where the Tebbutts were staying

Islamist militants are believed to be holding Judith Tebbutt in Kismayo, along the coast from the resort of Kiwayu where she was seized

Ali Shebwana, leader of the village where the couple, from Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire had been staying, said: ‘They will not harm her as she has value only if she is alive.’
Last night Kenyan police arrested a second man over the kidnapping. He is suspected of being an associate of the first suspect, handyman Ali Babitu, who used to work at the resort.
Both men are being questioned in custody and have apparently admitted helping the raiders under duress, after themselves being held at gunpoint.

Enlarge  

Kidnapping: Graphics show the site the Tebbutt's lodge (top) and the route that the pirates took to escape

Kenyan police on the shore after Mr Tebbutt was shot dead and his wife kidnapped

The Tebbutt's son Oliver Tebbutt, 25, arriving at the family home in Bishop's Stortford with Met Police

RIGHT MINDS

Allan Mallinson

ALLAN MALLINSON: 'Special Forces are for strategic objectives; to use them for anything less than strategic effect is to 'break windows with guineas', as the elder Pitt was accused of doing with his abortive raids on the French coast.
'I’m sorry if I now appear to be using this sad event to make a point about defence cuts, but we might just bear in mind that SF recruit from within the services. The fewer the men in the army, the smaller the pool from which the SAS can recruit. It’s as simple as that.'

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Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2036688/Kenya-kidnap-Judith-Tebbutt-used-human-shield-Al-Qaeda.html#ixzz1XyHkd8Ov