President Trump is weighing up a plan to send hundreds of captured ISIS fighters including the notorious ‘Beatles’ jihadists to Iraqi prisons and Guantanamo Bay.
According to US officials cited by NBC on Thursday, the two remaining ‘Beatles’ – Alexandar Amon Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh – would be sent to Guantanamo Bay.
They are the ‘Ringo’ and ‘George’ of the four British terrorists who were named after the band by fellow terrorists because of their accents. The others are Mohammed Emwazi, aka Jihadi John, and Aine Lesley Davis.
Together, they are responsible for the slaughter of three American and two British civilians; James Foley, Steven Sotloff, Peter Kassig, David Haines and Alan Henning.
Emwazi was killed in a drone strike in Syria and Davis is in a Turkish prison, leaving just Kotey and Elsheikh in the hands of President Trump who has been given free reign over their fate by the British government.
Alexandar Kotey (pictured left) and Shafee El-Sheikh (pictured right) may be sent to Guantanamo Bay as part of a new plan by President Trump to send captured ISIS fighters to Iraq and Cuba. They are currently being held in a prison in Syria by Syrian Democratic Forces which is struggling to contain the hundreds of ISIS fighters they have captured and continue their fight against the terror group
In July, Prime Minister Theresa May stripped the pair of their British citizenship and gave the US permission to execute the two men should they wish to.
They are currently being held in a Syrian prison along with around 600 other captured fighters by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.
The rebel group does not have the resources to prosecute and imprison the fighters while continuing their fight against the terror group and the Syrian regime.
No other country will take them.
The pair were stripped of their British citizenship before they were captured by enemy forces on the battlefield.
British citizens Alan Henning (left) and David Haines (right) were also slaughtered by the group
Britain now wants the US to handle their prosecution because its ministers believe there is a higher chance of conviction and imprisonment in the American court system.
Democrats are opposed to the plan to send the pair to Guantanamo.
They say it could turn them into martyrs and they believe they should be tried in federal court, like any other defendant, rather than be held in Guantanamo where the US can keep them without ever sending them to trial.
Earlier this month, seven of the fighters were repatriated to Macedonia and eight were sent to Lebanon. The US officials said they fought for months for their home countries to accept responsibility of them but none would.
If they are sent to Guantanamo Bay (pictured), the two British jihadists may never see trial. Democrats do not want them at the Cuban prison and say instead they should be prosecuted through federal court in the US to ensure proper processes are followed
British Prime Minister Theresa May relinquished responsibility for the remaining Beatles terrorists and said she supported plans to let the US decide whether or not to execute them
Tunisia has said it will take around 150 of them but it wants to be compensated. Kazakhstan has also expressed willingness to take on some of the fighters.
Sending them to Iraq would be a ‘temporary solution’ and would also prevent any other countries from having to go to Syria to collect them.
According to the unnamed US officials, Iraq is yet to agree explicitly but the two countries are in talks about it.
The UK’s decision earlier this summer to relinquish responsibility of the two men and not seek assurances for their life was described as ‘rare’ by British politicians.
The Prime Minister is yet to go on record to say unequivocally that she supports the two men being executed.
Instead, her representatives said only when asked that the UK does not, ‘as a matter of principle’, support capital punishment even though she supported the Home Secretary’s plan to let the US decide whether or not to execute them.
Between them, the four terrorists slaughtered five Western hostages in videotaped beheadings which shocked the world and sent the fight against ISIS to the forefront of the world’s agenda.
Foley, who was a journalist, was the first. He was killed by Emwazi in 2014.
WHO ARE THE ISIS BEATLES? JOHN, RINGO, GEORGE AND PAUL – THE FOUR BRITISH JIHADISTS RESPONSIBLE FOR SLAUGHTERING US AND BRITISH CIVILIANS
‘John’: Man Utd fan who turned into the most reviled man in the world
Kuwaiti born Mohammed Emwazi, became the most reviled man in the world as ISIS’s most notorious executioner Jihadi John.
However, reports suggest he appeared to embrace British life after moving to the country as a six-year-old in 1993.
Neighbours remember a polite, quiet boy who supported Manchester United, wore ‘Western clothing’ and played football on the affluent streets of west London.
He became more religious after moving to Quintin Kynaston Community Academy, a secondary school in St John’s Wood, in 1999.
But it was only after he won a place studying computing at the University of Westminster that his behaviour began to change.
The university has since been linked with several proponents of radical Islam – and Emwazi appeared to have fallen under their sway.
He began attending different mosques and was known to associate with Bilal el-Berjawi, who was killed by a drone strike in Somalia four years ago.
Emwazi, Alexanda Kotey and Aine Davis all attended the al-Manaar mosque in Labroke Grove, where Kotey emerged as the ring leader.
The knife-wielding killer – dubbed ‘Jihadi John’ – beheaded hostages, including British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning, on camera.
Emwazi is also believed to have killed the American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, as well as Abdul-Rahman Kassig, an aid worker.
‘George’: Former mechanic who beheaded 27 hostages
The fourth and final member of the infamous ISIS execution squad with Jihadi John El Shafee Elsheikh (pictured, as a teen)
The third member of the infamous ISIS execution squad with Jihadi John El Shafee Elsheikh.
Described as a ‘kind and softly spoken’ former fairground mechanic, from west London, he turned into a ISIS extremist who was part of the gang that beheaded 27 hostages and tortured many more in Syria.
Elsheikh grew up in White City, just a few miles other members of the cell, and his mother said he was radicalised at local mosques within weeks of hearing sermons by infamous hate preacher Hani al-Sibai.
He later travelled to Syria in 2012 to fight his holy war, and his younger brother Mahmoud followed him – and was killed fighting in Iraq last year.
Elsheikh’s identity was confirmed by a former US counter-terrorism official and investigators working to find The Beatles.
The terrorist, who lived in Syria with two wives and two young children, has been captured after being hunted by security services on both sides of the Atlantic.
His mother, Maha Elgizouli, revealed how the family moved to White City in west London when Elsheikh was just five years old, along with his two brothers.
Both of his parents had fled the civil war in Sudan in the 1990s – where they were both members of the Communist Party – but the father, a poet, left the family when Elsheikh was just seven years old.
They grew up a few miles from the first of the infamous Beatles group to be exposed, Mohammed Emwazi – who later became known as Jihadi John but was killed in a drone strike in 2015.
‘Ringo’: A ‘polite’ west London boy who fought for ISIS
Alexanda Kotey, said to be a fan of Queens Park Rangers, was also described by neighbours as a ‘polite’ boy
Alexanda Kotey, said to be a fan of Queens Park Rangers, was once described by neighbours as a ‘polite’ boy.
But after he left the UK to join ISIS in Syria, he used social media to continue radicalising young men, an old friend told ITV.
They added: ‘The way he secretly operated he was a roadman, a gangster.
‘He had the skills of influencing people he could see as influential or vulnerable so they could bring their friends in.
‘They would have used the same tactics as gangs to recruit people. Like grooming, he gave them a sense of belonging.
‘They couldn’t get job or uni course they wanted.
‘Through remote network and services, he would have people he delegated responsibility to. They could have helped and advise them on how to get to Syria.’
Father-of-two Kotey, who is half Ghanaian, half Greek Cypriot, is believed to have been one of ISIS’ key recruiters and helped them radicalise young men from London.
He used to be a member of the Greek Orthodox Church but is said to have converted to Islam in his teens.
He attended the al-Manaar mosque in Ladbroke Grove, west London, with Emwazi and Davis, it was reported.
A local community worker said the trio were ‘physically ejected’ from the mosque because of their extremist views.
They said ‘He would definitely be standing there with, I’d say a dozen boys all listening to him. He was the speaker. He was the spokesman in that little group.
‘It was Alex most definitely who was the lynchpin. The mosque did so much to keep these people at the fringes.’
‘Paul’: A west London gangster and gun runner turned ISIS guard
The third so called ‘Beatle’, Aine Davis, originally from Hammersmith, travelled to Syria to become an ISIS guard
The fourth so called ‘Beatle’, Aine Davis, originally from Hammersmith, travelled to Syria to become an ISIS guard.
Prior to fleeing the UK, Davis was convicted six times for possessing cannabis and was also heavily involved in gang circles, where he was known as ‘Biggz.’
The gangster worked as a gun runner, selling handguns before the weapons factory he worked for was busted by police.
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 met his wife Amal el-Wahabi at Westbourne Park mosque in 2006 and despite the disapproval of her parents, they developed a close relationship.
Davis’ new found interest in religion led him to persuade his girlfriend that they should move to Yemen.
He was detained by police in Turkey last year on suspicion of plotting a terrorist attack.
His wife, Amal El-Wahabi, was jailed in 2014 for funding terrorism.
When police raided his wife’s home, Davis’s iPod revealed he used to listen to lectures by radical American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.