A Kansas woman pleaded guilty Tuesday to forming and directing an all-female combat unit for ISIS after fleeing the United States to join terrorist activities in the Middle East.
According to federal authorities, Allison Fluke-Ekren, 42, gave military training to over 100 women and girls, some as young as ten years old, on behalf of the defunct extremist Islamic caliphate in Syria.
Fluke-Ekren departed the United States in 2008, traveling to Egypt with her four children after her second husband Volkan Ekren.
According to federal investigators, Fluke-Ekren examined and summarized government papers that her husband took from the US Special Mission during a terrorist attack that attacked the complex.
She thereafter proceeded to Turkey, Syria, and Iraq with her husband, finally leading a woman’s center in Raqqa on behalf of the Islamic State, according to the authorities.
According to police, she offered medical services, childcare, and educational services concerning ISIS ideology.
According to the feds, Fluke-Ekren was given command of an all-female ISIS military battalion called as Khatiba Nusaybah in 2017.
According to the Department of Justice, she taught women and girls how to use automatic fire AK-47 assault guns, grenades, and suicide belts.
The unit also gave martial arts, medical training, VBIED driving lessons, ISIS theological seminars, and instruction on how to pack and prepare a go bag with guns and other military gear, according to the FBI.
Fluke-criminal Ekren’s complaint was filed under seal in 2019 but not made public until she was extradited to the United States to face charges in January.
She pleaded guilty in the Eastern District of Virginia on Tuesday to one count of conspiring to give substantial assistance or resources to a foreign terrorist organization, and she faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
