MI5 plotted to infiltrate a fifth “Beatle” alongside the ISIS Syrian terror cell fronted by barbaric Brit Jihadi John, a writer reveals.
But the secret operation was pulled at the last minute – ending hopes the Londoner’s murder spree could be halted – amid fears the agent would be unmasked and publicly executed.
The intelligence service had spent months training the spy recruited in Britain from an Asian Muslim community.
But when a gruesome video emerged of Jihadi John – real name Mohammed Emwazi – beheading US journalist James Foley in 2014 the plan was abandoned.
Author Richard Kerbaj said: “The greatest responsibility intelligence services have is to the safety of their agents.
“That has to come before everything else even if it means months of work wasted and missing a golden opportunity to disrupt terrorists.”
Then Prime Minister David Cameron had ordered UK spymasters to make a priority of tracking down the murderers because Jihadi John was making a mockery of the Five Eyes allies – the intelligence services of Britain, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – by taunting the West in beheading videos.
Mr Cameron wanted the Five Eyes to co-operate more closely with other spy agencies and felt the successful targeting of the Beatles would help as French and Italian hostages had also been their captives.
He told Mr Kerbaj for his sensational book The Secret History of the Five Eyes: “There was a bit of professional jealousy amongst European partners that there is this incredibly close relationship.
“You have got the respect for the UK’s human intelligence capabilities, particularly in countering Islamist extremism.”
The four Beatles got their nickname because of their regional English accents when they guarded 20 hostages at Raqqa in west Syria.
They were notorious for torture, water-boarding and mock executions – being referred to by their captives as John, George, Paul and Ringo.
Two of the terror group, Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, are serving life in the US and a third, Aine Lesley Davis, is awaiting trial in the UK after five years in a Turkish jail.
Emwazi was killed in a US drone strike in Raqqa in 2015 thanks to information from British spooks.
They identified him from his London accent, the veins on his hand and the slope of his shoulders.
