ISIS: The woman has been identified as Allison Fluke-Ekren, the US government said. (Represent)
Washington:
An American woman believed to be the leader of an all-female ISIS battalion in Syria has been charged with providing material support to a foreign terrorist group, the US Justice Department announced Saturday.
The woman, identified as Allison Fluke-Ekren, formerly of the US state of Kansas, was named in a sealed criminal complaint filed in 2019 in a Virginia federal court, claiming government father said.
Among other things, it said she planned an attack on a US university campus and talked about organizing a devastating attack on an American shopping mall.
The statement said Fluke-Ekren, 42 – who used at least five aliases – had previously been arrested in Syria but was transferred to custody by the FBI on Friday.
She is scheduled to make her first appearance before the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, in the Washington suburb of Alexandria, on Monday at 2:00 p.m. (1900 GMT), the statement said.
All-female ISIS unit
The government statement said Fluke-Ekren had traveled to Syria “several years ago for the purpose of carrying out or supporting terrorism”, adding that she was “allegedly engaged in a number of activities related to terrorism”. terrorism in the name of IS since at least 2014.
Those activities included the planning and recruitment of special agents for a possible attack on a US university campus, the statement said, although it did not provide further details.
It also said she was the leader and designated organizer of an all-female ISIS military battalion, where she trained women in the use of AK-47 assault rifles, grenades and suicide belts. Called Khatiba Nusaybah, the members are all married to male ISIS fighters.
As a battalion commander, the Justice Department alleges, she prepared the women to defend themselves during the 2017 siege of the Syrian stronghold of Raqqa, Syria.
The department said her other work for ISIS includes training children in the use of AK-47 rifles and suicide belts.
The statement said at least six individuals had tracked “the alleged terrorist conduct of Fluke-Ekren from at least 2014 to approximately 2017.”
They said she spoke of her desire to attack an American shopping mall by parking a car packed with explosives in a basement garage.
“Fluke-Ekren allegedly considers any attack that does not kill a large number of instances as a waste of resources,” the statement said.
ABC News, citing court papers, said Fluke-Ekren moved to Egypt in 2008. She visited the US regularly over the next three years but hasn’t returned since 2011.
If convicted, Fluke-Ekren faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
According to a study by the Program on Extremism at George Washington University, women make up only about 10 percent of those accused by the United States of supporting the group ISIS. This is the first case involving a person allegedly holding such a position of power within ISIS.
