US bids to send ‘Beatles’ jihadis back to Britain
But minister says: We don’t want them
BRITAIN is to reject American attempts to have captured Islamic State fighters tried in their home countries.
The Pentagon wants its allies to take responsibility for their own citizens.
But Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson will tell the Trump administration today that UK foreign fighters such as members of the ‘Beatles’ terror cell will not be allowed back in Britain.
Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh helped Mohammed ‘Jihadi John’ Emwazi to behead hostages including British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning. Their capture in Syria was announced last week.
Mr Williamson will tell defence ministers at a summit in Rome that UK passport holders who have travelled to fight for Islamic State should be tried in Syria.
A senior Pentagon official told reporters travelling with US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis to Rome that militants should instead be turned over to face justice in their home countries.
Kathryn Wheelbarger said: ‘We’re working with the coalition on foreign fighter detainees, and generally expect these detainees to return to their country of origin for disposition.
‘Defence ministers have the obligation and the opportunity to really explain to their other ministers or their other cabinet officials just the importance to the mission, to the campaign, to make sure that there’s an answer to this problem.’
A source close to Mr Williamson said: ‘The day these barbaric terrorists turned their back on this country in pursuit of an evil agenda of bloodshed and slaughter, they forfeited their right ever to return. ‘They are not British subjects and should pay the price for their crimes in Syria.’ Kotey and Elsheikh were dual nationals but had their UK citizenship taken away to stop them reentering the country.
Miss Wheelbarger said the ‘capacity problem was very real’, adding that at one point the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces were capturing as many as 40 militants a day. The SDF is holding hundreds of foreign fighters, including British-Canadian Muslim convert Jack Letts.
British ministers say that suspected foreign fighters allowed home might walk free because it is so difficult to collect evidence against them.
Emwazi, 27, was killed by a drone strike in November 2015 in Raqqa, Syria – the supposed capital of Islamic State.
Kotey, 34, and Elsheikh, 29, are being interrogated by British and American agents. They and the fourth member of the gang – Aine Davis – all came from West London.
Davis, 33, was jailed in Turkey last year after he was caught trying to sneak over the border with Syria. It is feared that Kotey was planning to return to Britain and wreak mayhem.