Relatives of the victims of an Islamic State torture and murder cell known as “the Beatles” have expressed relief that the two remaining members have been captured and said they wanted to see them stand trial.
Londoners Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh were detained by Syrian Kurdish fighters in eastern Syria in mid-January, US military officials confirmed on Friday.
The two men were thought to have been trying to escape from the country following the collapse there of Islamic State, and have since been questioned by both Kurdish fighters and the US military.
One other member of the cell, Mohammed Emwazi, known as “Jihadi John”, was killed in an airstrike in 2015. The fourth alleged member, Aine Davis, is serving a seven-and-a-half year jail sentence in Turkey, imposed last year for membership of a terrorist organisation.
The group’s hostages nicknamed them the Beatles because of their British accents. Davis has denied he was one of the four.
In formally designating the two captured men as terrorists last year, the US state department said they were members of a four-strong Islamic State “execution cell” which was responsible for holding captive and beheading more than 27 hostages and torturing many more.
“As a guard for the cell, Kotey likely engaged in the group’s executions and exceptionally cruel torture methods, including electronic shock and waterboarding,” the department said. “Kotey has also acted as an Isil recruiter and is responsible for recruiting several UK nationals to join the terrorist organisation.
“Elsheikh was said to have earned a reputation for waterboarding, mock executions, and crucifixions while serving as an Isis jailer.”
Their victims included the British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning, the US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and the American aid worker Peter Kassig. A number of the murders were filmed, and videos were posted on the internet in 2014.
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