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US Charges 2 British Members of Islamic State's 'Beatles' Cell

Masood Farivar

   Two alleged members of a notorious Islamic State cell behind the public
   beheadings of Western hostages in Syria in the mid-2010s have been
   transferred to the United States to stand trial on terror charges, law
   enforcement officials announced Wednesday.

   The two men from Briton, Alexanda Amon Kotey, 36, and el-Shafee
   Elsheikh, 32, allegedly belonged to a four-person cell of Islamic State
   fighters in Syria dubbed the "Beatles" that carried out half-a-dozen
   shocking video executions of American and other Western hostages in
   2014 and 2015.

   Their alleged ringleader, Mohammed Emwazi, a Kuwaiti-born Briton dubbed
   "Jihadi John," was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Syria in November
   2015. A fourth member was subsequently arrested in Turkey, where he was
   tried and convicted on terrorism charges.

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