A 42-year-old woman who once lived in Kansas has been charged by federal authorities with providing material support to the Islamic State after she was returned to the United States, Politico reports.
Allison Fluke-Ekren was the subject of a sealed indictment filed in 2019, and that indictment was opened after Fluke-Ekren was returned to the United States after spending neary the last decade in Syria. She had moved to Syria after living in Egypt for a number of years and frequently returning to the US.
“Fluke-Ekren has been a fervent believer in the radical terrorist ideology of ISIS for many years, having traveled to Syria to commit or support violent jihad. Fluke-Ekren translated her extremist beliefs into action by serving as the appointed leader and organizer of an ISIS military battalion, directly training women and children in the use of AK-47 assault rifles, grenades, and suicide belts to support the Islamic State’s murderous aims,” prosecutors alleged in court filings.
According to prosecutors, Fluke-Ekren trained women and children to fight for the Islamic State. She is believed to have been on the leaders of an all-female brigade called the “Khatiba Nusaybah.” She trained women and children as young as 7 on how to use AK-47 assault rifles.
Fluke-Ekren had also attempted to recruit people in the United States to undertake assaults at shopping malls and college campuses. According to prosecutors, “she considered any attack that did not kill a large number of individuals to be a waste of resources.”