Skip to content 
Search

Latest Stories

UK police detail 'remarkable' probe into IS 'Beatles' cell

The “Beatles” cell is accused of abducting at least 27 journalists and relief workers from the United States, Britain, Europe, New Zealand, Russia and Japan.

UK police detail 'remarkable' probe into IS 'Beatles' cell

UK police lifted the lid Wednesday on a years-long probe into the notorious Islamic State (IS) kidnap-and-murder cell dubbed the "Beatles" by their captives.

Counter-terrorism officers said the hostages' recollections helped "zero in" on three of the British captors.


The IS cell members, who tried to keep their identities hidden, held dozens of foreign hostages in Syria between 2012 and 2015 and were known to their captives as the "Beatles" because of their distinctive British accents.

Two of them -- 38-year-old Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, 34 -- have been brought to justice in the United States for their part in the gruesome beheadings and killings of several Americans.

Another, Mohamed Emwazi -- dubbed "Jihadi John" -- died in Syria in 2015.

A fourth alleged British member was remanded in UK custody last week on terrorism charges after Turkey deported him following a jail term there.

Ahead of Elsheikh's sentencing on Friday, British police have now detailed how their nearly decade-long probe unearthed key evidence used by US prosecutors to convict him in April.

"The building of the case is described as like putting together very small pieces of a jigsaw," Richard Smith, the head of London police's counter-terrorism unit, told reporters at a briefing Wednesday.

"What we pieced together here is a trail of breadcrumbs, fragments of breadcrumbs really, amongst a huge amount of other inquiries, which we were then able to present... to a court to assist the prosecution in the US."

London's Metropolitan Police first began probing what would become known as the "Beatles" cell in November 2012, when a spate of kidnappings of Western journalists and aid workers began in northern Syria.

Following some hostages' release, as well as videos of other captives being beheaded by an executioner with a British accent, officers discovered some of the suspected perpetrators were UK citizens.

From the accounts of freed hostages, alongside other information and intelligence, they first identified the executioner as Emwazi.

Born in Kuwait but raised in the UK since aged six, he was killed by a US drone strike in Syria in 2015.

As British police worked to identify others, Smith said a "snippet of conversation" between captors and captives provided the key breakthrough.

Kotey and Elsheikh had revealed they were once arrested in central London at a far-right English Defence League (EDL) protest, which featured a counter-demonstration by an Islamic group.

Officers were able to trawl back through records of arrests at such events and discovered a September 2011 incident in which the pair were held over a stabbing.

Police then unearthed video footage of the duo from the day, data from their seized mobile phones that showed links to Emwazi, and other evidence leads.

Graphic phone images

"(That) one piece of information emerged from the hostages we spoke to, which was fairly unremarkable on the face of it to the hostage but proved very significant to us," said Smith.

Officers also used a 2014 firearms conviction of Elsheikh's brother to find further evidence from his mobile phone seized in that case.

It included images of Elsheikh in Syria in combat gear with a gun, and graphic pictures of severed heads which the 34-year-old had labelled "Syrian casualties".

Meanwhile, officers discovered a 2009 police interview with him over an unrelated case that featured his voice, which experts were able to conclude was the same as a captor's heard in IS hostage videos.

The "Beatles" cell is accused of abducting at least 27 journalists and relief workers from the United States, Britain, Europe, New Zealand, Russia and Japan.

Kotey and Elsheikh were captured in January 2018 by a Kurdish militia in Syria and turned over to US forces in Iraq before being sent to the US with UK permission.

There they faced charges of hostage-taking, conspiracy to murder US citizens and supporting a foreign terrorist organisation.

Kotey pleaded guilty to his role in the deaths last September and was sentenced to life in prison in April.

More For You

Sheikh Hasina

Hasina left for India at the end of the student-led protests and has not returned to Dhaka, where her trial for alleged crimes against humanity began on June 1. (Photo: Getty Images)

Getty Images

Leaked audio suggests Hasina ordered use of force during 2024 protests

SOME leaked audio recordings suggest Bangladesh’s former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who is currently on trial in absentia, ordered a deadly crackdown on protests last year.

According to the United Nations, up to 1,400 people were killed between July and August 2024 when Hasina's government cracked down on demonstrators during an attempt to stay in power.

Keep ReadingShow less
Doctors' strike

The doctors had previously accepted a 22 per cent pay rise covering 2023 to 2025, which brought an end to earlier rounds of strikes.

Getty Images

England's resident doctors announce five-day strike over pay dispute

JUNIOR doctors in England will go on strike from 25 to 30 July, their union said on Wednesday, after the British government said it could not meet their demand for an improved pay offer this year.

The doctors, also known as resident doctors, make up a large part of the medical workforce. They were offered an average 5.4 per cent pay rise but are seeking 29 per cent, saying this is needed to reverse years of real-terms pay erosion.

Keep ReadingShow less
Modi set for UK visit to sign free trade agreement

FILE PHOTO: Keir Starmer (L) with Narendra Modi. (Photo: Getty Images)

Modi set for UK visit to sign free trade agreement

INDIA's prime minister Narendra Modi is likely to travel to the UK by the end of this month for a visit that could see both sides formally sign the landmark India-UK free trade agreement and explore ways to expand bilateral ties in the defence and security sphere, diplomatic sources said.

Both sides are in the process of finalising the dates for Modi's visit to the country by the end of July or the first part of August, they said.

Keep ReadingShow less
Rishi Sunak returns to Goldman Sachs, will donate salary to charity

Rishi Sunak. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)

Rishi Sunak returns to Goldman Sachs, will donate salary to charity

FORMER prime minister Rishi Sunak has returned to the banking world as senior adviser at Goldman Sachs group, with plans to donate his salary to the education charity he recently established with his wife Akshata Murty.

The US-headquartered multinational investment bank, where Sunak worked before entering politics, made the announcement on Tuesday (8) after the requisite 12-month period elapsed since the British Indian leader's ministerial term concluded following defeat in the general election on July 4 last year.

Keep ReadingShow less
 Post Office Horizon

A Post Office van parked outside the venue for the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry at Aldwych House on January 11, 2024 in London.

Getty Images

Post Office scandal linked to 13 suicides, says inquiry

Highlights:

 
     
  • Public inquiry finds up to 13 suicides linked to wrongful Post Office prosecutions.
  •  
  • Horizon IT system faults led to false accusations, financial ruin, and imprisonment.
  •  
  • Sir Wyn Williams says Post Office maintained a “fiction” of accurate data despite known faults.

A PUBLIC inquiry has found that up to 13 people may have taken their own lives after being wrongly accused of financial misconduct by the Post Office, in what is now described as one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British history.

Keep ReadingShow less