‘Beatles’ could be intelligence trove
Two captured Islamic State terrorists from London have been stripped of their citizenship as British and American spies race to exploit intelligence from them.
Alexander Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh are the two remaining members of ‘‘the Beatles’’, a British Isis cell that beheaded Western hostages.
The British government is not expected to seek their extradition to stand trial in the United Kingdom, where both men have family. It means the alleged hostage killers, who are being held by United States-backed Kurdish forces in Syria, could be extradited to America or to a US detention centre in Cuba.
A British defence minister has urged against their detention in Guantanamo
Bay, which has been criticised for its treatment of inmates. Tobias Ellwood said that all captured foreign fighters who were part of Isis should stand trial in the Hague.
The widow of British aid worker David Haines, who was murdered by the terrorist gang, said she would like to deliver her own style of justice.
‘‘Bring those dogs to me,’’ said Dragana Haines, speaking from her native Croatia. ‘‘Or take me to where they are and grant me six hours alone with each of them. I promise they’d be alive after I’m done with them. Not sure they’d want to be, though.’’
Haines and fellow aid worker Alan Henning, US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and American aid worker Peter Kassig were murdered by the Beatles cell, who posted videos of their deaths online.
Foley’s mother, Diane Foley, said the group’s crimes were ‘‘beyond imagination’’.
The cell was led by Mohammed Emwazi, known as Jihadi John, who was killed in a US air strike in 2015.
The fourth member is Aine Davis, who is in prison in Turkey.
The seizure of Kotey, a father of two from Shepherd’s Bush in west London, and Elsheikh, a former fairground mechanic who grew up in White City nearby, had been kept secret for three weeks until it was reported by a US newspaper on Friday.
The leak caught British officials by surprise.
It is understood that British intelligence and military officers had been fully briefed on their capture.
It was highly likely that MI6 or MI5 officers had been given access to the men or had been allowed to question them through US interrogators, a senior Whitehall source said.
‘‘That is common practice. It is part of the close relationship with the United States.’’
Data from mobile phones and other electronic equipment that the two men had on them is part of a potential ‘‘treasure trove’’ of information, according to sources.
Intelligence officers are looking for clues on any plans to attack Britain, the US and other allied countries, and information on the location of other Isis fighters, including Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the group’s leader, who is still thought to be alive.
It is also hoped that the agents can get information about John Cantlie, a British journalist who has been in Isis captivity since 2012.
Kotey and Elsheikh were stripped of their British citizenship at some point in the past four years, effectively rendering them stateless.
US and British-backed Syrian Kurdish forces detained the two men – possibly in two separate operations – as they attempted to flee the war zone.