Captured IS fighters provide clues to US hostages' remains

Information about the possible location of the remains of US hostages killed by the Islamic State (IS) in Syria has been provided by two former terrorists captured in January, a media report said.

The two men, identified by US intelligence as Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, have given Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces details about potential burial locations of several American and other Western hostages killed by Mohammed Emwazi, the British IS operative known as Jihadi John, military officials told CNN on Thursday.

Kotey and Elsheikh were known associates of Jihadi John who was killed in a US airstrike in Syria in 2015.

It has long been believed the hostages he beheaded in a series of violent videos were killed outside Raqqa, the IS stronghold in Syria.

US personnel will have to recover the remains and then confirm any potential identities through DNA testing, the officials added.

Meanwhile, US authorities have started informing the families of Americans and others held and killed in Syria that there were new leads on the possible whereabouts of the remains of their loved ones.

--IANS

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