UK police have shared details how they carried out their probe into the Islamic State’s (IS) dreaded kidnap cell and dubbed it the “Beatles”.
An alleged British terrorist El Shafee Elsheikh belonging to the Islamic State was remanded to custody in the UK last week after being deported by Turkey. Richard Smith, head of London police’s counter-terrorism unit said the case involved “very small pieces of a jigsaw”. Smith said the militants involved always kept their faces covered and withheld their names from hostages.
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Smith described the probe as “piecing together a trail of breadcrumbs” and conducting inquiries to assist the prosecution in the US. Police found the information provided by freed hostages as a crucial link to probe the terrorists, including the beheading of captives by IS terrorists named the “Beatles” due to their British accent.
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The dreaded “Beatles” cell was responsible for a spate of kidnappings in Syria between 2012 and 2015. IS terrorists Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh were sentenced by a US court while Mohammed Emwazi dubbed “Jihadi John” was killed in a US drone strike in Syria in 2015.
Richard Smith informed that “snippets of conversation” between the hostages and the alleged kidnappers led to a key breakthrough in the probe. Kotey and Elsheikh had reportedly revealed that they were once arrested by UK police in London. The police were able to check their database as video footage emerged of a stabbing incident.
Kotey and Elsheikh were captured by the Kurdish militia in Syria in 2018 and turned over to the US forces in Iraq and then transported to the US. UK police said ultimately “fragments of breadcrumbs” along with information and intelligence played a major role in identifying and prosecuting the terrorists.
(With inputs from Agencies)
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