Two British Islamic State fighters, known as ‘the Beatles’ and notorious for beheading videos, are caught in Syria

Two British Islamic State militants implicated in brutal acts of torture and execution, have been captured by US-backed Kurdish fighters in Syria.

The two men, Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, formed part of a group of four fighters nicknamed “the Beatles” due to their British accents and are allegedly responsible for murdering approximately two dozen hostages in Syria.

Kotey, a 34-year-old convert to Islam who grew up in west London, and 29-year-old Elsheikh, whose family fled to the UK from Sudan in the 1990s, were the only remaining members of the group still at large.

The group’s leader, Mohammed Emwazi, nicknamed Jihadi John, was killed in a 2015 air strike. Emwazi was believed to be the militant responsible for the gruesome beheadings of journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, which were captured on film and distributed in Isis propaganda videos.

The group’s fourth member, Aine Davis, was convicted on terror charges last year in Turkey.

The capture was first reported by The New York Times and independently confirmed by The Guardian.