by Micaela Burrow
A Kansas native admitted to organizing an all-female militia on behalf of ISIS in an Alexandria, Virginia, court on Tuesday.
Allison Fluke-Ekren pleaded guilty before a U.S. district court in Virginia for providing “material support to a foreign terrorist organization, namely the Islamic state of Iraq and al-Sham,” according to court documents.
Going by the alias Umm Mohammed al-Amriki, Fluke-Ekren organized and led a battalion of female ISIS members married to ISIS fighters in Syria, a criminal complaint filed against Fluke-Ekren in 2019 said. Fluke-Ekren also trained 100 women and girls, some as young as 10 years old, to fight, according to a Department of Justice press release.
Members of the battalion learned how to use AK-47 assault rifles, grenades and suicide belts, according to the DOJ.
Witnesses told investigators that Fluke-Ekren repeatedly discussed conducting deadly terrorist attacks against targets in the U.S., a criminal complaint filed against Fluke-Ekren in 2019 claimed. She regarded “any attack that did not kill a large number of people to be a waste of resources,” DOJ claimed.
One witness called Fluke-Ekren “off the charts” on a scale of radicalization, according to court documents.
Fluke-Ekren left her home in Kansas in 2008 with her husband, a member of the terrorist organization Ansar al-Sharif, and was herself associated with terrorist activity from at least 2014 to 2018, according to the DOJ.
U.S. authorities took Fluke-Ekren into custody in January. She could receive a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, court documents show.
American Woman Who Led ISIS Battalion Pleads Guilty
Allison Fluke-Ekren Admits to Providing MilitaryTraining to Over 100 Women and Young Girls in Syria on Behalf of ISIS and Numerous Other Terrorist Actshttps://t.co/ANYf8Uj0Rr
— National Security Division, U.S. Dept of Justice (@DOJNatSec) June 7, 2022
U.S. authorities recently indicted other citizens for their involvement with ISIS.
Authorities apprehended Ohio resident Naser Almadaoji in October as he attempted to reach Afghanistan, where he planned to receive training from ISIS. He plead guilty in November to a single count of planned support for ISIS and ISIS-K.
New York resident Ali Saleh received a 30 year prison sentence for attempting to provide support for ISIS, also in November.
Fluke-Ekren’s lawyers declined to comment, and the U.S. attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia referred the Daily Caller News Foundation to its press release.
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Micaela Burrow is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Allison Fluke-Ekren” by Alexandria Sherrif’s Office.
