The last two British members of ISIS’s evil ‘Beatles’ gang have been captured in Syria.
Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, who were part of the beheading gang that included Jihadi John, were detained by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in January.
They were named after the 60s band because of their English accents.
Kotey and Elsheikh were the last two members of the group to remain at large.
The ringleader Mohammed Emwazi – known as Jihadi John – was killed in an airstrike in 2015 in Syria. A fourth man, Aine Davis, is imprisoned in Turkey on terrorism charges.
El Shafee Elsheikh, 27, who was known as one of the brutal terrorists known as The Beatles because of his British accent, has been captured in Syria
Alexanda Kotey was from Paddington. In January 2017, US authorities named Kotey as a member of the cell and said they had imposed sanctions on him
The four Londoners were linked to a string of hostage murders in Iraq and Syria during the bloody Islamist uprising.
They also had a reputation for waterboarding, mock executions and crucifixions.
Unnamed US Officials told the New York Times that Kotey and Elsheikh were captured by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces which were fighting the last remaining pockets of ISIS fighters near the river Euphrates on the Iraq/Syria border.
It added that the men were identified by fingerprints and other biometric means.
Former child refugee Elsheikh was a Spice Girls fan from White City in west London.
He supported Queens Park Rangers and worked as a mechanic. He worked in a garage while fixing funfair rides.
Mohammed Emwazi, who was killed in a US air strike in 2015, appeared in a number of videos in which captives including British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning were beheaded
He was born in Sudan, but his family fled the country and came to Britain in the early 1990s.
Elsheikh became heavily influenced by the sermons of a West London imam known for his radical beliefs.
His father, Rashid Sidahmed Elsheikh, a translator living in London, said his son had travelled to Syria to fight for jihadis at the start of 2012.
He described his son’s radicalisation as ‘lightning-fast’.
He said: ‘We tried to handle this in a mild, considerate way but before we could do anything, he just left.’
His mother Maya Elgizouli said Elsheikh was the middle son of three raised alone by her after the family moved to Britain.
But she said he was affected badly when his eldest brother Khalid was sentenced to ten years in prison for possessing a firearm after the killing of a gang member involved in a dispute with the family.
His younger brother, Mahmoud, was killed fighting for ISIS in Iraq last year after following him to the war zone as a 17-year-old.
Salah al-Bander, a former Cambridge Liberal Democrat councillor who raised the alarm about El Shafee Elsheikh’s journey to Syria in 2012, said the 27-year-old had a stall outside Shepherd’s Bush tube station from which he used to preach, adding that he was ‘completely transformed’ into a radical in a short period.
He told The Guardian: ‘El Shafee was a really very quiet, kind, reflective young person. In a very short period of time, I mean weeks, he turned to be very radicalised, with very strong views about everything.’
Unnamed US Officials said Kotey and Elsheikh were captured by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces which were fighting the last remaining pockets of ISIS fighters near the river Euphrates on the Iraq/Syria border (pictured)
Alexanda Kotey, also a QPR supporter, was from Paddington.
In January 2017, US authorities named Kotey as a member of the cell and said they had imposed sanctions on him.
Their execution cell included the knife-wielding killer Emwazi – dubbed ‘Jihadi John’ – who beheaded hostages, including British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning, on camera.
The fourth member, Davis, was convicted of being a member of a terrorist organisation and jailed for seven-and-a-half years at a court in Silivri, Turkey, in May 2017.
Davis, a former tube driver and drug dealer from Hammersmith in west London who went to Syria in 2013, reportedly told a BBC journalist to ‘f*** off’ when asked to comment on the verdict.
The fourth member, Davis, was convicted of being a member of a terrorist organisation and jailed for seven-and-a-half years at a court in Silivri, Turkey, in May 2017
According to the BBC, Davis was asked in court about his involvement with the terror cell and denied involvement.
‘I am not ISIS. I went to Syria because there was oppression in my country,’ he said.
Davis is thought to have converted to Islam shortly after being jailed in the UK in 2006 for possessing a firearm.
The son of a dinner lady and a John Lewis shopworker, he took the name Hamza and travelled the Middle East.
He befriended Emwazi at a mosque in west London shortly before leaving for Syria.
He is believed to have travelled to Syria in late 2012, where he fought for ISIS. He abandoned four children by two different mothers when he left Britain on a flight to Amsterdam.
In 2014 Davis’s wife, Amal El-Wahabi, 27, became the first woman to be jailed for terrorism offences connected to Syria after she was caught paying a smuggler to take €20,000 (£17,000) in cash to Turkey for her husband.
She was jailed for two years.