12 Friday International Friday, October 9, 2020 IS ‘Beatles’ charged in US for roles in murders of American hostages 2 members of IS kidnapping cell appear in court by videolink

ALEXANDRIA: Two members of a notorious Is- trict court in Virginia. Zachary Terwilliger, US States to face justice. “James, Peter, Kayla and commit murder and other charges. If convicted, lamic State kidnapping cell dubbed the “Beatles” attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Steven were kidnapped, tortured, beaten, they face a maximum sentence of life in prison. appeared in a US court by videolink on Wednes- said that counsel would be provided to both starved, and murdered by members of the Is- Kotey and Elsheikh’s four-member IS cell was day after being flown to the United States from men at no charge. lamic State in ,” the families said in a joint dubbed the “Beatles” by their captives due to to face charges of conspiring to murder four Besides the deaths of the four Americans, statement. “Now our families can pursue ac- their British accents. They tortured and killed American hostages. El Shafee Elsheikh, 32, and Elsheikh and Kotey are also suspected of in- countability for these crimes against our chil- their victims, including by beheading, and the IS Alexanda Kotey, 36, are accused of involvement volvement in the killings of two Britons, Alan dren in a US court.” “We are hopeful that the US released videos of the deaths for propaganda in the murders of American journalists James Henning and David Haines, and several other government will finally be able to send the im- purposes. According to the indictment, Kotey Foley and Steven Sotloff and relief workers Peter hostages including two Japanese nationals. “Our portant message that if you harm Americans, and Elsheikh were involved in abducting Amer- Kassig and Kayla Mueller. message to other terrorists around the world is you will never escape justice,” they said. “And ican, European and Japanese hostages in Syria The two former British nationals have been in this-if you harm Americans, you will face Amer- when you are caught, you will face the full from 2012 to 2015 along with two other British the custody of US forces in Iraq since October ican arms on the battlefield or American law in power of American law.” members of the “Beatles.” 2019 after being captured in January 2018 by our courtrooms,” Attorney General Bill Barr The families had lobbied to have the pair Alleged ringleader Mohamed Emwazi, known Syrian Kurdish forces. They were brought to said. “Either way, you will be pursued to the brought to the United States to be tried in a court as “Jihadi John,” was killed in a US airstrike in the United States by FBI agents on Wednesday ends of the earth until justice is done.” of law rather than transferred to Guantanamo Bay Syria in November 2015 while the fourth “Bea- and the charges against them were read during in Cuba, where other prisoners in the US “war on tle,” Aine Davis, is imprisoned in Turkey after an initial appearance in a federal court in ‘You will never escape justice’ terror” have been held. In an interview with AFP, being convicted on terrorism charges. Accord- Alexandria. Wearing prison uniforms, handcuffs The two IS members have been stripped of Foley’s mother, Diane, said she was “praying that ing to the US authorities, the London-born and face masks, the bearded IS members ap- their UK nationality but the transfer to the justice will be served for them and as well as for Kotey and the Sudanese-born Elsheikh travelled peared on video from an undisclosed location in United States was made possible only after US our son and the other victims.” “I think they need to Syria from Britain in 2012 after being radical- Virginia where they are being held. authorities assured Britain they would not seek an opportunity to come to terms with what ized in Britain. Kotey and Elsheikh supervised After the reading of the eight-count indict- the death penalty. Britain handed over evidence they’ve done to so many innocents,” Foley said. detention facilities for hostages and allegedly ment, they were asked if they needed an attor- against the pair to the US authorities last month “I never wanted the death penalty.” coordinated ransom negotiations conducted by ney. “I don’t know. I didn’t have time to consult and a spokesman for Prime Minister Boris John- email, according to the US authorities. The pair anyone,” Elsheikh said. “I have no money.” He son said Wednesday “we want justice to be done ‘Physical and psychological violence’ also engaged in a “prolonged pattern of physical also asked whether he was still under the juris- in this case.” The families of Foley, Kassig, Sot- The eight-count grand jury indictment and psychological violence against hostages,” diction of the Defense Department and was loff and Mueller welcomed the news that the two against the pair charges them with various of- they said, including beatings, mock executions told that he was in the custody of the US dis- IS members had been brought to the United fenses including hostage-taking, conspiracy to and water-boarding. —AFP

Smerch: Soviet-designed Trump hails COVID ‘blessing’ Tornado wreaks fear in as he returns to Oval Office Nagarno-Karabakh WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Wednesday declared his COVID-19 illness a “blessing from God,” as he got STEPANAKERT: “Smerch”, meaning “Tornado” in Russian: the word is on back to work in the Oval Office despite warnings that his return everyone’s lips in Stepanakert, the capital of the Armenian-controlled Azer- could put others at risk. Trump has worked hard since he baijani region of Nagarno-Karabakh. Stepanakert has been under sustained checked out of the hospital on Monday - including a made-for- Azerbaijani bombardment since fighting flared between the two foes late last television return to the White House - to cast his illness as a per- month, with Baku vowing there can be no compromise until it wins control sonal triumph. of the territory. Both sides have access to Soviet-era weapons but it is the “I think this is a blessing from God that I caught it,” Trump USSR-designed Smerch multiple launcher system that is causing the said in a video, referring to the virus which has killed over most concern in Stepanakert. Overnight, at least three houses next to each 210,000 people in the United States. But Democrat Joe Biden, other were destroyed by a powerful explosion but there were no casualties. SHUSHA: This picture shows a hole in the roof of the Ghazanchetsots (Holy Sav- who leads Trump in the latest polls ahead of the November 3 “Only a Smerch rocket could have caused such damage,” said local resident ior) Cathedral in the historic city of Shusha, some 15 kilometers from the dis- vote, attacked the president’s downplaying of the risk. “I think Albert Kafaian as he surveyed the damage to the surroundings. puted Nagorno-Karabakh province’s capital Stepanakert, that was hit by a bomb it’s a tragedy that the president deals with COVID like it is A crater 4 to 5 meters wide was gorged in the middle of what was a small as fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces spilled over ahead of a first something not to worry about when over 210,000 people (in courtyard. Only the walls, reduced to rubble, of the two-storey concrete meeting of international mediators in Geneva. —AFP the US) have died,” Biden told reporters. dwellings remain. The overturned wreckage of a car-all that was left of a The behavior of the president - who has faced fierce criti- garage-lay at the foot of a tree. Fortunately, the owners had fled to Yerevan. attacks, with the familiar buzzing sound giving away the culprit. , cism for his handling of the outbreak - is under scrutiny as the Another rocket landed in the garden of a house, leaving a roughly 10-metre for its part, has accused Armenian forces of shelling civilian targets in urban number of positive cases climbs among people working at the crater in the ground. The sole victim appeared to be a dog whose gutted re- areas, including its second-largest city of Ganja. The 300 mm Smerch , White House and elsewhere in Washington. On Wednesday the mains were lying nearby. David Babaian, an advisor on foreign policy in the fired from a on the back of a truck, replaced in the Pentagon confirmed that one of the Marine Corps’ top officers, breakaway region, said Smerch attacks had taken place that night, in what 90s the more famous “Grad” BM-21 system. These were the successors of General Gary Thomas, tested positive for the virus. In his em- he described as a “tactic of terror”. the Katyusha rocket launcher system used with great success by the USSR blematic red tie, Trump attributed his recovery since being di- in World War II with its ease of reloading making up for lack of accuracy. It agnosed Thursday and hospitalized Friday to an antibody ‘Destroy anything that moves’ remains impossible to confirm with certainty the exact type of rockets being cocktail, an experimental treatment that has not even received The salvos have started to follow a typical pattern: hourly fire in the night, used, even if some 10 apparently unexploded rockets are cordoned off on an emergency use authorization. —AFP possibly from the Smerch, then a respite in the morning. The day brings drone the streets of the city, inviting the curiosity of journalists and locals. —AFP