A Kansas woman has been charged with joining the Islamic State terrorist group, where she allegedly led an all-female battalion, The Associated Press reported.
The U.S. attorney in Alexandria, Va., announced Saturday that Allison Fluke-Ekren, 42, has been charged with providing material support to a terrorist organization for leading female militants who were trained to use AK-47 rifles, grenades and suicide belts.
Fluke-Ekren allegedly led a unit called Khatiba Nusaybah in Raqqa, Syria, in 2016.
The initial complaint against Fluke-Ekren was filed confidentially in 2019 but has now been made public following Fluke-Ekron’s return to the U.S. Friday.
Fluke-Ekron allegedly recruited operatives to attack a college campus and a shopping mall. A witness claims that Fluke-Ekron said “she considered any attack that did not kill a large number of individuals to be a waste of resources.”
An affidavit for the case cites information given by six witnesses, some of whom have been charged with terrorism offenses.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Raj Parekh on Friday filed a detention memo claiming that Fluke-Ekren trained children on how to use assault rifles and that one of her children was witnessed holding a machine gun at 5 or 6 years old.
“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,” Parekh wrote in the memo.
Fluke-Ekren will appear before the U.S. District Court in Alexandria on Monday.