Extreme measures may not be answer

Upon hearing the news that her father’s murderers had been caught, the reaction of Bethany Haines may not have been to everyone’s taste, but it was understandable.

The 20-year-old was a young teenager when her father was cruelly taken from her and she admits she has struggled to come to terms with the loss.

Wanting her father’s killers put to death was a gut reaction which she accepts was unrealistic.

The alternative of an unending prison term, even if less palatable, may yet reap a type of cold comfort.

Sources suggest the captured men, Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, are co-operating with the authorities.

They could reveal the burial sites of Bethany’s father, David Haines, and others they have murdered.

Who knows what other secrets they may be privy to. Using the most extreme measures against such people may eliminate them from the ongoing war against so-called Islamic State but their detention and interrogation, where they are willing to co-operate, could prove even more valuable.

Those who call for the merciless destruction of the terrorists must view this and acknowledge if criminals give up secrets useful to the military – not to mention those civilians whose lives they have been torn apart – it is worth using a little more subtlety in bringing them to justice.

Real progress to end the bloodshed can then be made.