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News > World

Last Islamic State "Beatles" Captured in Syria

  • Rubbled city of Aleppo, Syria February 8, 2018

    Rubbled city of Aleppo, Syria February 8, 2018 | Photo: Reuters

Published 8 February 2018
Opinion

Known for publicizing their gruesome beheadings, Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh were captured by Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and handed over to U.S. authorities.

The last two members of the Islamic State (IS) militants of the four man cell known as "the Beatles" because of their English accents, were captured by Syrian Kurds inside the country.

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The New York Times just released that Alexanda Kotey, 34, and El Shafee Elsheikh, 29, were the last two at large of the four-man, London-raised IS cell that operated in Syria.

The group, nicknamed the Beatles, became known for filming and publicizing their executions of British and U.S. aid workers and journalists in Syria.

In total, they killed 27 hostages and tortured many more. Some of their victims included the British aid worker, David Haines and U.S. journalist, James Foley both beheaded in 2014.

A U.S. official told the NY Times that the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) captured the two in early January in eastern Syria and handed them over to U.S. authorities in the country. The U.S. government said he hung on to the information to protect intelligence information.

Kotey, according to the U.S. State Department press release "likely engaged in the group’s executions and exceptionally cruel torture methods, including electronic shock and waterboarding." Elsheikh was known for “waterboarding, mock executions, and crucifixions" of hostages.

The most notorious cell member, Mohammed Emwazi, nicknamed Jihadi John, was shown beheading several hostages in widely circulated videos between 2012 and 2014. He was killed in a drone strike in Raqqa 2015.

The Islamic State has lost significant parts of the Syrian and Iraqi territories it had taken over in a self-declared caliphate in 2014.

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