‘Isil Beatle’ admits drive-by shooting plot to kill soldiers
A BRITISH terrorist who was part of the “Isil Beatles” has admitted to being a hostage-keeper while in Syria and helping plan a London terror plot.
London-raised Alexanda Kotey, 35, fled to Syria in 2012 and, along with Jihadi John, became part of the terror cell nicknamed The Beatles by hostages because of their British accents.
Kotey yesterday admitted for the first time to his role in the group, which included extracting information from Western hostages such as the Briton Alan Henning and the American James Foley. He forced hostages to share the email addresses of relatives so Isil could “open up communication” and inform them that their loved ones were being held.
Kotey, who has been held by Kurdish forces for the past 16 months, also confessed to his part in a plot to kill soldiers and police in drive-by shootings at Shepherd’s Bush police station and the Parachute Regiment Territorial Army Barracks at White City in London.
The plot was foiled in 2016, and Tarik Hassane and Suhaib Majeed, two British terrorists, were imprisoned for life. Kotey told ITV News that the Shepherd’s Bush attack was supposed to be part of a wider plan to create sleeper cells in European countries in case they took action against Isil in Syria.
“The idea was to plant people in countries so that if there was any aggression
‘I don’t see in my case it makes a very big difference if I was actually there or not there’
from these countries they would have people who would conduct a mission,” he said.
Kotey gained a reputation as being the most cruel of The Beatles – Danish hostage Daniel Rye, who was released in June 2014, described how Kotey kicked him 25 times in his ribs to mark his 25th birthday.
However, Kotey denied any involvement with killing any of the hostages.
“I don’t see in my case it makes a very big difference if I was actually there or not there. I have a lot of accusations against me… it wouldn’t change much if I said I was there or I wasn’t,” he said.