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A suspected member of the Isis terrorism cell nicknamed The Beatles has apologised after admitting a role in holding Western hostages to ransom in Syria.

El Shafee Elsheikh, who grew up in west London, said he wanted to say sorry to "everybody who was affected, directly or indirectly" by his actions.

He made the comments in a rare interview with CNN, alongside fellow suspected terrorist Alexanda Kotey, who admitted he was a "fighter" who took part in hostage negotiations with victims' families.

The pair were captured in January last year and are believed to be detained by US-backed Kurdish fighters in Syria.

They are accused of belonging to the brutal four-man cell of Islamic State executioners in Syria, nicknamed The Beatles because of their British accents.

The group - which also included Mohammed Emwazi, known as Jihadi John, who was killed in a US air strike in 2015 - captured, tortured and beheaded hostages including British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning, US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and US aid worker Peter Kassig.

Many assassinations were shared online in Isis propaganda videos.

During the interview, Elsheikh and Kotey denied involvement in the murder or physical abuse of hostages, claiming they had been transferred to another unit

But Elsheikh said: “I consider my role in this whole scenario, this whole episode as one of my mistakes that I would like to apologise for... [to] everybody involved and everybody who was affected, directly or indirectly.”

He added: “I think that a confession will maybe hasten our extradition or rendition to the United States. I don’t think this is something that will prevent me going to the United States at all.

“I just want this period to be over. The truth has to come out.”

The broadcaster was given consent to speak to the two captives through a cameraman in their jail and a correspondent by video link from London.

Kotey, who has spent a year mostly in solitary confinement declined to say sorry but admitted to taking emails from European hostages to assist in the ransom negotiations with relatives and friends.

He told CNN: “I was a fighter. Extracting from them email addresses for communications. For example, if it was a proof of life question, something that only they would be able to answer.”

Asked why he agreed to this task he said: “It just so happened that way.”

Elsheik also said he was involved in the same activities: “Initially just liaising between the foreigner prisoner and the people dealing with their negotiations process”.

The pair are accused of torturing the hostages they kept in their care.

But the UK has stripped them of their British Citizenships, refusing to put them on trial because of the legal complications of repatriating former citizens.

The Syrian Democratic Forces do not have the resources to stage complex trials in northern Syria leaving the pair to possibly face the death penalty in Iraq or the United States, whose citizens they are accused of imprisoning and torturing.

The US State Department has accused Kotey, 35, originally from Ladbroke Grove in London, of having likely engaged in executions and exceptionally cruel torture.

Elsheikh is considered to have earned a reputation of mock executions, waterboarding and crucifixions, according to the State Department.

Some of the Beatles European hostages were released after negotiations but several Western aid workers and journalists went on to be brutally executed, by fellow group member Mohammed Emwazi, known as Jihadi John, who was killed by a done strike in 2015.