Last two British ‘Beatles’ IS killers caught in Syria
THE last two members of the Islamic State “Beatles” cell led by executioner Jihadi John have been detained in Syria, US officials said last night.
Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh were apparently detained by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in January.
They were two of the four members of a British Islamic State militants who became known as the Beatles because of their English accents.
United States officials identified the two men, both from west London, using fingerprints and other biometric measurements.
Their leader Mohammed Emwazi, – known as Jihadi John – was killed in an airstrike in 2015 in Syria.
He was responsible for the beheadings of British and American hostages which began in 2014 and were posted on the internet.
A fourth man Aine Davis, 35, who is suspected of being a part of the gang, is serving seven-and-a-half years in prison in Turkey after being convicted last year of being a member of a terror organisation.
All four had lived in west London. Kotey, 34, born in London, is of Ghanaian and Greek Cypriot background, while Elsheikh’s family fled Sudan in the 1990s.
The group were known for their brutality among other hardened extremists.
They are believed to have overseen Emwazi’s beheadings of more than 27 hostages including the British aid workers Alan Henning and David Haines, the US journalists Steven Sotloff and James Foley and Abdul-Rahman Kassig, a US aid worker. They also revelled in beatings, waterboarding and mock executions of other prisoners kept in the IS stronghold of Raqqa, Syria, which the terror group designated the capital of its caliphate.
According to a statement issued by the US State Department last January Kotey was: “Likely engaged in the group’s executions and exceptionally cruel torture methods, including electronic shock and waterboarding. Kotey has also acted as an IS recruiter and is responsible for recruiting several UK nationals to join the terrorist organisation.”
Elsheikh, 29, joined Al-Qaeda after travelling to Syria in 2012, it is claimed.
The State Department said: “Elsheikh was said to have earned a reputation for waterboarding, mock executions and crucifixions while serving as an IS jailer.”
The pair were detained by the American-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-led militia, which is fighting the last pockets of Islamic State insurgents in Syrian towns and villages along the Euphrates river south to the border with Iraq.
United States officials were informed in the middle of last month that the militia might have captured the men.
The SDF suspected that the two men were foreign fighters and consulted American Special Operations forces, officials said.