The feared ‘Beatles’ kidnapping squad of the Islamic State (IS) has been investigated in depth by UK authorities.
After being deported by Turkey last week, a suspected British terrorist named Elsheikh who is a member of the Islamic State was remanded to custody in the UK. According to Richard Smith, chief of the counterterrorism division of the London Police, the investigation comprised ‘quite minute parts of a jigsaw.’
Smith described the investigation as ‘piecing together a trail of breadcrumbs’ and said it was being done to help the US prosecution. In order to investigate the terrorists, including the execution of captives by IS militants nicknamed as the ‘Beatles’ due to their British accents, police used the information provided by rescued hostages as a critical link.
Between 2012 and 2015, the infamous ‘Beatles’ cell was responsible for a wave of kidnappings in Syria. A US court convicted the IS terrorists Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, while in 2015, a US drone strike in Syria resulted in the death of Mohammed Emwazi, also known as ‘Jihadi John.’
In 2018, the Kurdish militia in Syria arrested Kotey and Elsheikh, who were later handed over to US forces in Iraq and flown to the US. In the end, ‘fragments of breadcrumbs’ and information and intelligence, according to UK authorities, played a significant part in identifying and prosecuting the attackers.
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