Boris: Who would care if drone strikes had killed the jihadi Beatles?

BORIS Johnson has hit back at criticism for letting two British jihadis face the death penalty in the US, insisting that if the Government had been able to order their deaths with a drone strike in Syria, ‘too damn right we would’.

Alexanda Kotey and Shafee Elsheikh, members of the IS terror gang of four men from west London dubbed The Beatles – which included the notorious executioner Jihadi John – are linked to the murder of 27 Western hostages.

The pair, who have been stripped of their British citizenship, now face extradition from Syria to the US on terrorism charges.

A leaked Home Office document revealed this week that the Government has dropped its usual requirement for assurances they would not be executed if convicted by a US court.

Last night Mr Johnson said there was ‘a bit of humbug’ in the outrage over the ‘correct decision to send them for trial in America’. In an article for the Spectator magazine, Mr Johnson wrote: ‘Suppose the grisly pair had been located a couple of years ago in Raqqa. And let’s suppose there was a Reaper drone overhead, and British intelligence could help send a missile neatly through their windscreen.

‘Would we provide the details – knowing that they would be killed without a chance for their lawyers to offer pleas in mitigation? Would the British State, in these circumstances, have connived in straightforward extrajudicial killing? Too damn right we would.’

Mr Johnson noted that the four ‘Beatles’ were responsible for killing 27 people, adding: ‘We had to balance two risks: the risk they would be simply set loose, like so many other jihadis... or the small risk they might receive the death penalty. [Home Secretary] Sajid Javid and I decided the first risk was worse than the second. Who really believes we were wrong?’

‘Correct decision to send them for trial’