ISIS Brigade: Allison Fluke-Ekren a woman from Kansas led an all-female ISIS battalion in Syria. On Tuesday a federal court in Alexandria Virginia gave her a 20-year sentence.
In June, Fluke-Ekren pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to help ISIS. She told the judge that she didn’t know that some of the 100 women she led and trained to use guns and explosives were children, some as young as 10.
According to the terms of her plea agreement, during the decade Fluke-Ekren spent working with ISIS and other groups to wage violent jihad, she traveled from Libya to Egypt and eventually settled in Syria. During this time, she allegedly discussed plans for terrorist attacks in the United States and taught other women in ISIS how to use AK-47s, grenades and suicide belts.
The prosecutor Raj Parekh referred to Fluke-Ekren as the “Empress of ISIS” at the sentencing hearing that took place on Tuesday. He said she “brainwashed young ladies and groomed them to kill.”
Fluke-Ekren was on a mission to establish an all-female brigade, according to Parekh, who stated before the court that Fluke-Ekren had become a “warped visionary” for ISIS. “Death and destruction held a certain fascination for her.”
In addition, according to Parekh, Fluke-Ekren had refused to work with the United States government and had frequently misled its representatives, even though she might have been “a goldmine of intelligence.”
During the hearing that took place on Tuesday, one of her children named, Leyla Ekren testified that her mother had abused her as well as her siblings and had married her off as a “s*x slave.” Leyla Ekren also assisted the United States government in its case against her mother.
Ekren told the judge that she was given away as a bride to an ISIS fighter when she was 13 years old so that her mother could gain more power in the terrorist organization. Ekren referred to the ISIS fighter as “my rapist” in her statements to the judge. “Keep in mind what you were like at 10 or 15,” Ekren told the judge.
Ekren claimed that her mother had “dark ambitions” and a “thirst for power.”
Ekren testified that her mother assaulted her and her brothers, and she described an incident in which their mother burned Ekren’s eyes by pouring lice treatment over her face. She claimed that she had “intended it to blind me” so that others could see the damage that her mother had caused.
In her testimony, Fluke-Ekren stated that she was shocked by the allegations of child abuse and asserted that the allegations were false.
In her testimony on Tuesday, Fluke-Ekren painted herself as a loving mother and caretaker of whatever community she found herself in. She told the judge that she was dragged along by her husbands – several of whom died fighting for ISIS – to Libya and Syria. Fluke-Ekren said that she was told that she was a caretaker of whatever community she found herself in.
“Fluke-Ekren’s adult daughter delivered a victim impact statement in court today describing the severe abuse that Fluke-Ekren inflicted upon her in Syria, including coercing her to marry an ISIS fighter, who then raped her, when she was only 13 years old.” https://t.co/RiVtL4WzUB
— Seamus Hughes (@SeamusHughes) November 1, 2022
As the Syrian army of Bashar al-Assad began to draw in on Raqqa, where Fluke-Ekren lived, she gave a lengthy and emotional speech to the judge in which she said that the only people she had taught how to survive, how to use guns safely, and how to defend themselves were other women.
She challenged the court, “Do we blame women learning to protect themselves?” before mentioning that the agony of war is something that people on the outside cannot understand.
“No one can understand the horrors of a bombing until you’ve walked in its aftermath,” Fluke-Ekren said, implying that these horrors and the fear she felt for herself and her children explained much of her behavior with ISIS. “No one can understand the horrors of a bombing until you’ve walked in its aftermath.
District Judge Leonie Brinkema stated that she did not find Fluke-testimony Ekren’s credible before she handed down the sentence, which was the maximum Fluke-Ekren faced due to her plea deal. The judge also pointed out that suicide vests are not considered defensive weapons.
Gabriel, her son, and her daughter sat in the courtroom’s audience and remained silent during their mother’s sentencing. Fluke-Ekren informed the court that her six children, still minors, had been placed in foster families.
#NOW: Kansas woman Allison Fluke-Ekren has been sentenced to 20 years in prison & 25 years of supervised released after admitting she lead an all-female ISIS battalion.
More on my latest with @RobLegare 👇🏼https://t.co/2B44fJjEWz
— Cristina Corujo (@cristina_corujo) November 1, 2022
A female ISIS warrior from Kansas who commanded and trained 100 women and children in Syria pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiring to help the terrorist group.
Allison Elizabeth Fluke-Ekren, a K.U. Biology major flew to Syria in 2012 to wage violent jihad after living in Libya, Turkey, and Egypt with Ansar al-Sharia, according to a plea deal. Her second husband led ISIS snipers in the nation and was killed in an attack in 2016.
Fluke-Ekren trained around 100 girls ISIS soldiers, some as young as 10, to use AK-47s, grenades, and suicide belts in Syria. Fluke-Ekren said, “we didn’t knowingly train any young females” during Tuesday’s hearing.
Some of these women may testify during punishment, authorities said, adding that Fluke-Ekren caused them “lifelong trauma.”
Got to admit this totally passed me by. What on earth would possess a suburban school teacher to turn ISIS trainer. Story @_matthewdooley https://t.co/O1RHHzDoK2
— Karl Holbrook (@KarlDHolbrook) November 1, 2022
Fluke-Ekren helped her husband analyze U.S. documents he seized after the September 11 attacks on a U.S. mission and diplomatic annex in Benghazi, where U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other U.S. nationals were killed. The two gave documents and summaries to Ansar al-Sharia.
Today I learned a lady from Kansas named Allison was a battalion commander for ISIS https://t.co/VSFo7nm0ot
— Paul Szoldra (@PaulSzoldra) November 1, 2022
Fluke-Ekren discussed terrorist assaults on U.S. territory with ISIS, including placing a van full of explosives under a shopping mall. She told a witness that any attack that didn’t kill many people was a waste of resources.
She was detained in Syria and brought to the U.S. in January on charges of providing material support to ISIS. When Judge Leonie Brinkema described Fluke-“many Ekren’s children,” she broke down in tears. She might get 20 years.
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