US woman charged with aiding Isis and planning terror attacks, says US Justice Department
- The woman, who allegedly led an all-female Islamic State battalion in Syria, has been charged with providing material support to a foreign terrorist group
- The statement said the 42-year-old, who has used at least five aliases, had been apprehended previously in Syria but was transferred into FBI custody on Friday
An American woman who allegedly led an all-female Islamic State battalion in Syria has been charged with providing material support to a foreign terrorist group, the US Justice Department announced on Saturday.
The woman, identified as Allison Fluke-Ekren, formerly of the US state of Kansas, had been named in a sealed criminal complaint filed in 2019 in a federal Virginia court, the government statement said.
Among other things, it said she had planned an attack on a US college campus and spoke of organising a devastating attack on an American shopping centre.
The statement said the 42-year-old Fluke-Ekren – who has used at least five aliases – had been apprehended previously in Syria but was transferred into FBI custody on Friday.
She is expected to make her initial appearance before the US District Court for Eastern Virginia, in the Washington suburb of Alexandria, on Monday at 2pm local time, the statement said.
Fluke-Ekren travelled to Syria “several years ago for the purpose of committing or supporting terrorism,” the government statement said, adding that she had “allegedly been involved with a number of terrorism-related activities on behalf of IS from at least 2014.”
Those activities included planning and recruiting operatives for a possible attack on a US college campus, the statement said, though it provided no further details.
It also said she was the appointed leader and organiser of an all-female Isis military battalion, where she trained women in using AK-47 assault rifles, grenades and suicide belts. Called the Khatiba Nusaybah, the members were all married to male Isis fighters.