Islamic State ‘Beatles’ Fighters Being Brought to U.S. to Face Charges

WASHINGTON — Two notorious Islamic State detainees from Britain were being brought to the United States on Wednesday to face federal charges over accusations that they played a role in the torture and beheadings of Western hostages, according to American officials.

The transfer is a milestone in the saga of the two men, El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey, who are half of an ISIS cell of four Britons called “the Beatles” — a nickname bestowed by their victims because of their accents — and known for their extreme brutality. The American government says the group beheaded more than 27 hostages, including the journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff.

Both of the detainees were captured by an American-backed Kurdish militia in Syria in early 2018. In October 2019, the American military took custody of them amid the upheaval of Turkey’s attacks on the militia, and they had been held in Iraq since then.

The Trump administration wanted to bring them to the United States for a trial in civilian court, as the families of their victims urged, but their transfer was delayed by a need for evidence in British hands that prosecutors needed to prove the case.