The Beatles (terrorist cell)

The Beatles, dubbed as such by their hostages because of their English accents, are an active Islamic State (IS) terrorist group. Its members were nicknamed John, Paul, George, and Ringo by the hostages, after the four members of the British rock group the Beatles.

They are responsible for beheadings in Iraq and Syria, most notably as shown in the beheading videos of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning, in 2014. The Beatles have also kidnapped hostages, and guarded more than 20 Western hostages of the Islamic State in Western Raqqa, Syria. They are harsher than other Islamic State guards, using electric shock Taser guns, mock executions (including a crucifixion), and waterboarding.

United Kingdom and United States anti-terror experts have ascertained the identities of three of the four Beatles, and the countries' intelligence and security agencies are tracking down the group.

Activities
The Beatles are reportedly a cell of 4 (though some sources have only referred to 3 of the members) of an estimated 500 British Muslims fighting on behalf of the jihadist Islamic State to impose a caliphate in Syria and Iraq. They have taken hostages, have guarded more than 20 Western hostages of the Islamic State in Western Raqqa, Syria, have beheaded four of the hostages, and have memorialized their acts in beheading videos that they made public.

The Beatles spoke to each other in English, and struggled with Arabic. They always kept their faces hidden.

Guarding, torturing, and seeking ransoms for hostages
The Beatles, who have been assigned responsibility to guard foreign hostages by IS commanders, are harsher than other Islamic State guards. One source said: "Whenever the Beatles showed up, there was some kind of physical beating or torture." They are the most feared of the jihadists because of their taste for the macabre and their beatings, use of electric shock Taser guns, mock executions (including a crucifixion of Foley), and waterboarding, according to a freed French hostage.

Haines, for example, was tortured extremely and subjected to electric shock Taser punishments by the Beatles from the time of his March 2014 abduction. The Beatles have also forced hostages to fight each other in boxing matches as the Beatles watched, and then tortured the losers. Because of their excessive brutality, at one point they were removed from their guard duties by IS.

The Beatles were interested in obtaining ransoms for their hostages. A former hostage reported that the Beatles bragged that they had been paid millions of dollars in ransoms by certain European countries; enough to "retire to Kuwait or Qatar." The Beatles contacted families of some UK hostages, and are believed to be maintaining links to their associates and friends in the UK. James Foley's mother, Diane Foley, said in an interview: "their requests were impossible for us, 100 million Euros, or all Muslim prisoners to be freed. The requests from the terrorists were totally directed towards the government, really. And yet we as an American family had to figure out how to answer them."

Islamic State fighters are believed to be holding more than 20 foreign hostages.

2014 beheadings
Jihadi John beheaded American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, as well as British humanitarian aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning, in a period from August to October 2014. He had also previously beheaded two Syrian soldiers. At the end of the Henning beheading video, Jihadi John threatens to execute another captive American citizen, aid worker Peter Kassig.

A former Islamic State member said that using a British man to carry out the beheadings was likely a deliberate effort by IS to "project the image that a European, or a Western person, executed an American so that they can ... appeal to others outside Syria and make them feel that they belong to the same cause."

Jihadi John
The jihadist known as "John" has been identified by the British security service MI5, and appears in a video as Foley's killer. He speaks with a British accent in the video, and UK Prime Minister David Cameron said “from what we have seen it looks increasingly likely that it is a British citizen.”

George
George, the leader of the Beatles, often spent time repeating sections of the Koran and promoting the IS’s extremist views publicly. George uses the nom-de-guerre of "Abu Muhareb", which means "Fighter" in Arabic. It was the view of the hostages that George was not very intelligent.

Ringo and Paul
Ringo was frequently seen by the hostages. Paul appeared in the cells of the hostages less than the other Beatles, and appeared to be a guard only.

Reactions
The use of "Beatles" as a nickname for the group elicited a response from English drummer Ringo Starr, who expressed his disgust at the use of his former band's name in this context, saying: “It’s bullshit. What they are doing out there is against everything The Beatles stood for,” and adding that the Beatles had stood for peace and opposed violence.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said: "British people are sickened that a British citizen could be involved in murdering people – including a fellow British citizen who had gone to Syria to help people – in this way. It is the very opposite of what our peaceful, tolerant country stands for."

Manhunt
The British intelligence and security agencies MI5, MI6, Scotland Yard, and GCHQ are working on tracking down the group, in coordination with the CIA, FBI, and a Joint Terrorism Task Force of the United States. Sources reported that UK and US anti-terror experts have ascertained the identities of three of the four Beatles, and are tracking down the group.

A significant force of the British Special Air Service was deployed to Northern Iraq in late August 2014, and according to former MI6 chief Richard Barrett will be sent to Syria, tasked with trying to track down the Beatles using a range of high-tech equipment and with potentially freeing other hostages. As of September, British intelligence and security agencies including MI5 and Scotland Yard, aided by GCHQ communication monitoring, were working with the FBI and CIA, and field teams from MI6 and the CIA in Northern Syria, to identify and locate the group. British and US electronic eavesdropping agencies have targeted communications by the group. In October, British Prime Minister Cameron told the heads of MI5, MI6, and GCHQ that the manhunt was their top priority.