The Beatles

The Beatles was the nickname for an Islamic State terrorist group composed of four British militants. The group was named after the British rock group the Beatles by their hostages, and the group's members were even nicknamed after the band's members: "John", "Paul", "George", and "Ringo". The group carried out the beheadings in Iraq and Syria in 2014 of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning. The group also guarded more than 20 Western hostages of ISIS in Western Raqqa, Syria. They were reportedly harsher than other ISIS guards, torturing captives with electroshock weapons and subjecting them to mock executions (including a crucifixion) and waterboarding. In November 2015, one of the militants was killed and one was arrested and imprisoned in Turkey; the other two were captured in early 2018, transferred to U.S. military custody, and sentenced to life imprisonment in the U.S. in 2022. Activities The group nicknamed "the Beatles" were four or three, British Muslims fighting for the extremist, jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The group's nickname, and its members' nicknames, "John", "Paul", "George" and "Ringo", were used by the hostages, after the four members of the English rock group The Beatles, due to their regional English accents. The nickname was condemned by English musician and former Beatle Ringo Starr, saying: "It's bullshit. What they are doing out there is against everything The Beatles stood for ... [we] absolutely stood for peace and love." Beatles fans were also outraged.