A British jihadi who belonged to the notorious ‘Beatles’ terror cell was captured on his way back into Europe.
It is feared Alexanda Kotey, 34, was trying to return to the UK and bring bloodshed to the streets. He is one of four British fanatics nicknamed ‘The Beatles’, whose leader ‘Jihadi John’ beheaded foreign hostages on camera.
Londoner Kotey was held in Syria last month while trying to escape to Turkey, according to Kurdish-led forces. He was caught along with another member of the ‘Beatles’ cell, El Shafee Elsheikh, 29.
First pictures of ISIS Beatle Alexanda Kotey have emerged, days after it was revealed he had been captured by Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic forces
The terrorists, both dual nationals, had been stripped of their British citizenship by the Home Office in a bid to stop them re-entering the UK.
The first picture of Kotey, exclusively obtained by ITV News, shows the jihadist looking bearded and unkempt following his detainment by the Syrian backed forces.
‘We captured some big commanders. One of them is Alexanda Kotey,’ Redur Khalil said. ‘He was captured by an anti-terrorism unit on January 24 in the countryside near Raqqa. He was trying to escape to Turkey in coordination with his friends and contacts on the Turkish side.’
Kotey and Elsheikh look set to be extradited to the U.S – a move that British officials are not likely to oppose, according to the Daily Telegraph.
The New York Times, which broke the news of the capture, reported that Kotey and Elsheikh have had their British citizenship revoked – but this has not been confirmed by authorities in the UK.
Along with Mohammed Emwazi – the killer nicknamed Jihadi John – and Aine Davis, the pair are thought to have been part of a group named after the ’60s band because of their English accents.
El Shafee Elsheikh, 27, (pic in an undated image) who was known as one of the brutal terrorists known as The Beatles because of his British accent, has been captured in Syria
The four Londoners were linked to dozens of hostage murders in Iraq and Syria while serving under the self-styled caliphate.
Nicolas Henin, a former hostage of the brutal cell, said he is satisfied to know they will now pay for what they have done and that ‘justice is what I want.’
‘Just like a guess for most of the former hostages and the relatives of those who have been killed, it is a satisfaction to know these people are not free anymore,’ he told ITV News.
‘They will pay for what they have done. For me, this is the first stage of the trial. Justice is what I want.’
It comes as the daughter of British aid worker David Haines, who was beheaded by the Beatles, said the capture of its last two members brings her ‘some comfort’ but added, ‘They shouldn’t be breathing’.
Bethany Haines, whose father David was killed in 2014 after being held captive for 18 months, said she hoped the pair’s detention could bring some closure for relatives of those killed.
She told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: ‘I got a call late last night to say that they had been captured and the first thought was relief, finally to know that the people that were involved in my dad’s murder have been caught and will sort of serve some justice.’
Asked what she would like to see happen now, she replied: ‘In my opinion, they shouldn’t be breathing but that’s not really a realistic kind of expectation.
‘I think that they should be locked up with the key thrown away and never to be released.’
She added: ‘It was always kind of the unanswered question as to where they were and could they do this sort of thing again?
‘And yes, this sort of thing might happen again but the specific people that carried it out before have now all been caught and I think it will bring a lot of closure to all the families.’
Diane Foley, mother of murdered hostage James Foley, also gave her reaction to the men’s capture.
Foley told the BBC today that the arrests announced Thursday won’t bring her son back, but ‘hopefully it protects others from this kind of crime.’
She says ‘their crimes are beyond imagination. They really have not done anything good in the world, so I think they need to spend the rest of their life being held.’
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
Unnamed US officials told the New York Times that Kotey, 34, and Elsheikh, 29, were identified by fingerprints and other biometric means.
Kotel and Elsheikh’s fate remains unclear although the US would be keen to prosecute them as they were involved in the executions of at least three Americans.
The men could also have information about other hostages, including British journalist John Cantlie, who was abducted in 2012.
Since he was taken hostage, Mr Cantlie has appeared in several IS propaganda videos.
Last night, the UK’s Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson welcomed the news.
He said: ‘These are people who have done absolutely vile & despicable crimes & brought absolutely so much misery. It is good that they have been hunted down and caught.’
The ringleader of the ‘Beatles’, 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.
The US government said the Beatles beheaded more than 27 hostages.
According to the State Department, Kotey ‘likely engaged in the group’s executions and exceptionally cruel torture methods, including electronic shock and waterboarding.’
Kotey also acted as an ISIS recruiter and was responsible for recruiting several Brits to join the murderous organisation.
The State Department said ‘Elsheikh was said to have earned a reputation for waterboarding, mock executions and crucifixions while serving as an ISIS jailer.’
Former child refugee Elsheikh supported Queens Park Rangers and worked as a fairground mechanic.
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 and poet 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.’
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)
Elsheikh’s 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.
Along with Mohammed Emwazi – the killer nicknamed Jihadi John (pictured) – and Aine Davis, Kotey and Elsheikh are believed to have been part of a group named after the Beatles because of their English accents
Elsheikh’s 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 Elsheikh’s journey to Syria in 2012, said he 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.’
Kotey, also a QPR supporter, was from Paddington and raised in a Greek Orthodox family. Neighbours said he was a ‘reserved, polite boy’.
He converted to Islam after falling in love with a Muslim woman and had two daughters with her.
In January 2017, US authorities named Kotey as a member of the cell and said they had imposed sanctions on him.
Emwazi (pictured as a 15-year-old) before he became the knife-wielding killer known as Jihadi John
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.
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.
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
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, then 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.
EXC: ‘The fact he’s still alive will be a big relief’: Mother of ISIS Beatle suicide squad member is COMFORTED by his capture in Syria as daughter of aid worker beheaded by the gang says death is only punishment
By James Fielding and Sarah White for MailOnline
The mother of one of the two ISIS Beatles feels ‘comforted’ that her son has been captured as it means he will not die as a jihadist like her other child, according to a family friend.
El Shafee Elsheikh, 29, was detained in January by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces alongside Alexanda Kotey, 34, a fellow member of the brutal execution squad.
His capture will be a relief to his mother, Maha Elgizouli, according to a friend, who told MailOnline: ‘I don’t know when or even if she will ever see her son Elshafee again but knowing he is at least alive will bring her comfort.’
Elsheikh other brother, Mahmoud, also adopted a fundamentalist version of Islam and was killed in 2015 fighting near Tikrit in Iraq.
The neighbour, a 52-year-old mother of four who gave her name only as Ola, said: ‘She has already lost one son fighting in Syria so has been through that pain before.
‘I remember the day she found out her youngest son Mahmoud had died in 2015, she was sitting down and crying uncontrollably.
‘The whole family had arrived to console her but she was in pieces and kept saying the words ‘they’ve killed him’ over and over.
‘I don’t know when or even if she will ever see her son Elshafee again but knowing he is at least alive will bring her comfort.’
Mother Maha Elgizouli said her two sons Shafee (right) and his younger brother Mahmoud went to fight for ISIS. She was told last March last year that Mahmoud (left) was killed in Iraq
Miss Elgizouli eldest son, 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.
But despite the siblings’ disastrous adult lives, Ola insisted they were still a ‘good family’.
She added: ‘Her eldest son Khalid is in jail in this country and she still speaks to him, he’s the only she has spoken to for years.
‘They are a good family. Growing up the boys were very western in their behaviour and what they wore.
‘They used to play football and other games with my kids in the street outside. The family would have parties and invite friends and family round to their house.
‘But in recent years, the stress of everything began to take its toll. Whenever she spoke to me about her boys in Syria she would break down and cry.
‘They were from a warm loving family so I don’t know why they decided to go over there and do what they did.’
His mother broke down in tears after being told in May 2016 that he had been involved with the Beatles, which murdered and tortured dozens of people.
‘No, no, not Shafee,’ she sobbed. ‘That boy now is not my son. That is not the son I raised.’
Both Elsheikh’s parents fled the civil war in Sudan in the 1990s – where they were members of the Communist Party – but the father, poet Rashid Sidahmed Elsheikh, left the family when Elsheikh was just seven years old.
As a young man, Elsheikh enjoyed working on bikes and motorcycles in the family’s garden, and went on to study mechanical engineering at Acton College.
Elsheikh was close to his siblings, according to a close family friend, who told The Independent: ‘The brothers loved each other very much.
He found work in a garage and then as a mechanic for a local funfair, but in 2011 became friends with a young man whose father was an Islamist rabble-rouser advocating jihad.
His mother said: ‘I came straight to him and said, ‘Never in your life come into this home and talk about jihad.’ Me, I teach my kids about religion, not you. Don’t give them any information about anything.’
Miss Elgizouli claims her son was radicalised by Hani al-Sibai, an infamous Islamist preacher who described the London 7/7 bombings as a ‘great victory’.
She said that one day she heard her son listening to a CD with the teachings of Sibai, who is said to have inspired last year’s Tunisian beach massacre and be linked to Jihadi John.
She added: ‘I found him with him in the back garden listening to a CD. He passes me the CD and it is a man who is working in a mosque in the high road.’
Miss Elgizouli once caught him watching a video of the imam espousing the virtues of dying in the name of God.
She said she asked her son: ‘Shafee, you want to go and be a dead Muslim?’ He answered, ‘No mummy’, she said.
She claims that within 17 days, her ‘perfect’ son was wearing long robes, growing a beard, and preaching holy war.
And she says she powerless to protect her sons because, as a single woman – after the boys’ father left – she was not allowed into mosques to hear what the imams were telling them.
A keen QPR fan, Alexanda Kotey (pictured far left, and right) was from a Greek Orthodox family. Neighbours say he was a ‘reserved, polite boy’
A family friend told Buzzfeed that one day he came from prayer and pointed at his mother aggressively, then told her Allah teaches that your mother can be your enemy.
When he went to Syria, she said he just left her a note saying ‘gone to fight for God’.
Kotey, like Elsheikh, was radicalised as a young adult and even attended Greek Orthodox Church as a child.
The father of two grew up in Paddington and has been described as of a Ghanaian and Greek-Cypriot background.
Catherine Downie, Kotey’s step-aunt from Hove, East Sussex, initially claimed she did not know how he was.
But then told MailOnline: ‘I never met him, I never knew him, no-one ever speaks about him.’
She said her husband Jason no longer spoke to his own brother, Mark, and his wife, Christina, in London adding: ‘They’re all estranged. No-one sees them anymore.’
The family live in a large £750,000 Victorian townhouse in an upmarket area of Hove.
Kotey’s aunt Amanda was listed at a smart two-bedroom basement flat in a large Victorian mansion less than half a mile from the seafront.
Once described as a ‘polite’ boy by neighbours, Kotey is said to have attended the al-Manaar mosque in Ladbroke Grove with Emwazi and Aine Davis, another Beatles member.
A local community worker said the trio were ‘physically ejected’ from the mosque because of their extremist views.
The worker 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.’
‘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.
Bethany Haines, 20, whose father David was abducted in Syria in early 2013 before being murdered in September the following year, spoke to Good Morning Britain today on the phone
‘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.’
A statement released by the wider family said they were aware of Kotey’s capture: ‘The Kotey family has seen news about Alexe today.
It comes Bethany Haines, whose aid worker father David was killed in 2014 after being held captive for 18 months, said she hoped the pair’s detention could bring some closure for relatives of those killed.
She told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: ‘I got a call late last night to say that they had been captured and the first thought was relief, finally to know that the people that were involved in my dad’s murder have been caught and will sort of serve some justice.’
Asked what she would like to see happen now, she replied: ‘In my opinion, they shouldn’t be breathing but that’s not really a realistic kind of expectation.
‘I think that they should be locked up with the key thrown away and never to be released.’
She added: ‘It was always kind of the unanswered question as to where they were and could they do this sort of thing again?
‘And yes, this sort of thing might happen again but the specific people that carried it out before have now all been caught and I think it will bring a lot of closure to all the families.’
The capture of Elsheikh and Kotey means all of the Beatles are now killed or captured.
Mohammed Emwazi, also known as Jihadi John, was vaporised by a drone strike in November 2016.
The fourth member, Aine 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.
‘John’: Man Utd fan who turned into the most reviled man in the world
Mohammed Emwazi later became the most reviled man in the world as ISIS’s most notorious executioner Jihadi John
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.
‘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.’
‘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.
‘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.
The Western hostages captured, tortured and killed by the beheading gang
American journalist who kept up fellow prisoners’ morale
James Foley, from Illinois, USA, was a journalist who first went missing in November 2012
James Foley, from Illinois, in the US, was a journalist who first went missing in November 2012.
On his way to an internet cafe, while reporting for the GlobalPost, he had been taken hostage at gunpoint by militants from the group Jabhat al Nusra in Taftanaz, northern Syria.
Jabhat al Nusra subsequently joined forces with ISIS – which did not exist in anything like its current form when Mr Foley was taken.
Mr Foley joined other prisoners, who were European and British, in the ISIS prison and despite attempts to rescue him, he was eventually murdered by his captors.
His fellow prisoners spoke kindly of Foley, who called people ‘Bro’ and never argued over shortages of food, despite meagre rations equating to cup of food-a-day, often sharing his portion and his blanket.
Mr Foley often made efforts to maintain prisoners’ morale, persuading them to play games and to give talks on their favourite subjects.
He even organised a ‘Secret Santa’ during Christmas 2013, encouraging hostages to make gifts out of whatever they could find.
ISIS posted his execution video, titled ‘A Message to America’ to social media as proof of his death.
In scripted remarks before his killing, kneeling in an orange jump suit, he said: ‘I wish I could have the hope of freedom and seeing my family once again.
‘But that ship has sailed. I guess all in all I wish I wasn’t American.’
‘The guy lit up a room’: US freelance journalist who was an avid rugby player
Steven Sotloff, 31, from Miami, who freelanced for Time and Foreign Policy magazines, vanished in Syria in 2013
US journalist Steven Sotloff, 31, vanished in Syria in August 2013.
Mr Sotloff was not seen again until he appeared in a video released online by ISIS on August 2014, that showed James Foley’s beheading.
In a second clip, published weeks later, entitled ‘A Second Message to America,’ Mr Sotloff appeared in a orange jumpsuit before he is beheaded by an Islamic State fighter.
The grandson of Holocaust survivors, Mr Sotloff grew up Miami, before attending the Kimball Union Academy boarding school in New Hampshire before studying at the University of Central Florida.
While at Kimball, Mr Sotloff was an avid rugby player and on moving to UFC began working for the student newspaper there, the Central Florida Future.
He left this paper in 2005 and began to pursue his dreams of journalism full time.
‘The guy lit up a room. He was always such a loyal, caring and good friend to us,’ former roommate Josh Polsky told the New York Times.
‘If you needed to rely on anybody for anything he would drop everything on a dime for you or for anyone else.’
Sotloff travelled to the Middle East as a freelance journalist and wrote reports from Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Turkey and Syria.
He often had pieces in Time and Foreign Policy magazines.
‘A million people could have told him what he was doing was foolish, as it seemed to us outsiders looking in, but to him it was what he loved to do and you weren’t going to stop him,’ his friend, Emerson Lotzia, said.
‘Steve said it was scary over there. It was dangerous. It wasn’t safe to be over there. He knew it. He kept going back.’
British taxi driver who volunteered as an aid worker
Alan Henning, a father-of-two, was kidnapped on Boxing Day 2013 as he delivered aid to Syrian refugees
Alan Henning, a father-of-two, was kidnapped on Boxing Day 2013 as he delivered aid to Syrian refugees.
The taxi-driver, from Manchester, was kept hostage until he was beheaded by Jihadi John on video in October 2014.
Before he was killed, Mr Henning was forced to tell the camera that he was being murdered in retaliation for parliament’s decision to attack ISIS.
Originally from Salford, he had seen the suffering first hand during a life-changing visit to a refugee camp, which inspired him to help the innocents whose lives were being wrecked by the conflict.
After volunteering with a Muslim charity, the 47-year-old agreed to drive 3,000 miles in a convoy of old ambulances to help the aid effort and take much-needed medical supplies to hospitals in the northern Syrian province of Idlib.
Known as ‘Gadget’ to friends and family for his fondness for technology, Mr Henning had been washing cars in the UK to raise money for donations before setting off on his fourth visit to the country.
He travelled with eight others from charity Al-Fathiha Global, who intended to deliver vital equipment, including NHS ambulances packed with baby milk, nappies, food and defibrillators, but was kidnapped by ISIS extremists on Boxing Day, shortly after making the 4,000-mile journey to the town of Al-Dana.
A fan of Phil Collins, which he enjoyed playing as he drove, Mr Henning was incredibly popular and during one trip insisted on sleeping inside his ambulance instead of a hotel to save money so it could be donated to the refugees instead.
Kasim Jameel, leader of the convoy on which Mr Henning was travelling when he was kidnapped, described his friend as a ‘big softie.’
Dr Shameela Islam-Zulfiqar, who was also in the convoy, said Mr Henning was ‘remarkable.’
‘He’s such a compassionate and selfless human being,’ she said. ‘It just simply wasn’t enough for Alan to sit back and just donate or raise awareness.
He had to get up and do something about what he’d seen Every time the convoys went he had a yearning to go. That really motivated him, to see, practically, first-hand the difference he was making.’
Scottish father-of-two who spent his career as an aid worker
David Haines, who was beheaded a week after Steven Sotloff, was the first British victim of Jihadi John
David Haines, who was beheaded a week after Steven Sotloff, was the first British victim of Jihadi John.
The father-of-two, from Holderness, East Yorkshire, was taken hostage while working for relief agency ACTED in Syria in March this year.
He was captured near the Atmeh refugee camp, just inside the Syrian border with Turkey.
Mr Haines spent his career as an aid worker helping to protect innocent civilians in developing nations.
For more than two decades, he travelled with aid agencies through Syria, Libya, the former Yugoslavia and South Sudan.
He dedicated his life to promoting peace in places of violent conflict and oversaw projects to save civilians from land mines.
The 44-year-old was described as a hero by his family, who were inspired by him to travel the world on further aid missions.
He had a teenage daughter in Scotland from a previous marriage with his first wife, and a four-year-old daughter, Athea, in Croatia from his second wife.
Mr Haines was brought up in Perth, Scotland, and studied at Perth Academy before joining the military aged 17.
According to his online CV he spent 11 years in the military, holding ‘various positions covering security and threat assessments in a number of different countries’ between 1988 and 1999.
It did not specify with which armed forces he served, although his ISIS execution video claimed he had been in the Royal Air Force.
His brother Mike later confirmed this, saying he was an engineer.
26-year-old who was helping refugees while living in Beirut
Peter Kassig, a 26-year-old from Indiana, was beheaded by ISIS executioner Jihadi John in November 2014
Peter Kassig, a 26-year-old from Indiana, started a non-profit organisation called Special Emergency Response and Assistance (SERA).
The Iraq war veteran, who was living in Beirut to provide relief for refugees of the Syrian crisis, was beheaded by ISIS executioner Jihadi John, in November 2014.
Writing on his profile page on fundraising website FundRazr, Mr Kassig said he had previously worked as a medic in a hospital in Tripoli, Lebanon.
He said: ‘When I first started this cause to help those in need, I was on my own but I saw first-hand the shortages in available resources and supplies for people who were suffering in Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey as a result of the violence.
‘The amount of feedback and support from people all around the world motivated me to get organised and develop a platform through which people could send donations to support the continuation of my work.’
Kassig joined the U.S. Army Rangers in 2006 and was deployed to Iraq in 2007.
He was honourably discharged for medical reasons after a brief tour and returned to the United States to study political science.
However, in 2010, he decided to take time off from his studies and began his certification as an emergency medical technician.
He then decided to travel to Beirut to try and help those in need as a result of the Syria crisis.
It was after a short time in the country that he started up his own aid group, SERA.
Few details are publicly known about how Kassig was taken captive.