Prosecutor: Brit’s brutality uncommon even for Islamic State

By MATTHEW BARAKAT
Associated Press

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — Prosecutors told a federal jury that a British national on trial for terrorist acts that resulted in the gruesome deaths of four American hostages had a reputation for outsize brutality. The jury in Alexandria, Virginia, heard opening statements Wednesday in the trial of El Shafee Elsheikh. He is better known as one of “the Beatles,” a nickname hostages gave to some of their captors because of their British accents. Among the hostages killed were journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and aid workers Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller. Defense lawyers say discrepancies about whether there were three or four Beatles among the hostage-takers cast doubt on whether Elsheikh has been correctly identified.