US major calls on Britain to take back Isil ‘Beatles’

THE UK must take back two alleged Isil terrorists suspected of a series of beheadings, a senior US military commander has said.

El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey are said to have been members of a four-man cell of executioners in Syria and Iraq, nicknamed The Beatles because of their British accents, who were responsible for killing a number of high-profile Western captives.

Maj Gen Patrick Roberson, commander of US special operations, has urged Britain to take back fighters for Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and specifically Elsheikh and Kotey.

They are alleged to have been part of a terror cell which also included Mohammed Emwazi, known as Jihadi John, who killed 27 people including British aid workers.

The pair, who have had their British citizenship withdrawn, are currently detained in Syria. However, after the Crown Prosecution Service declared there was not enough evidence for them to face trial in the UK, ministers decided to share information with the United States in an effort to see them brought to justice there.

Maj Gen Roberson is the first senior American voice to call for fighters to be returned to their country of origin amid concerns that some nations are refusing to take responsibility.

He said: “I think the Syrian Democratic Forces and us would certainly like them to be repatriated to where they came from.”

A Whitehall source said Maj Gen Roberson’s views do not represent those expressed by the US administration in ongoing talks. A Downing Street spokesman added: “The security of the UK will always come first.”

Kotey and Elsheikh, who were raised in the UK, may face a federal trial in the US and there have been calls for the decision to be reviewed after Britain failed to seek assurances that neither of the men would face the death penalty.