Kansas Woman Allegedly Led All-Female ISIS Battalion And Planned To Attack College, Shopping Mall In The U.S.

Topline

The FBI on Friday took custody of a former Kansas teacher named Allison Elizabeth Fluke-Ekren who federal prosecutors allege led an all-female military battalion under the control of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), according to a now-unsealed 2019 criminal complaint, which charged her with providing and conspiring to provide material support to the foreign terrorist organization.

(Photo credit should read GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP via Getty Images)

AFP via Getty Images

Key Facts

The 42-year-old former Kansas resident allegedly planned attacks to be carried out on U.S. soil; trained women and children in Syria on how to use AK-47 assault rifles, grenades and suicide belts; and was the leader of an all-female ISIS military battalion, the Department of Justice said in a statement.

Fluke-Ekren allegedly led the unit beginning in late 2016, and a witness said she trained over 100 women and young girls.

Fluke-Ekren left the U.S. in 2008, first for Egypt, after which she spent time in Libya, before making her way to Syria around 2012 because she wanted to engage in “violent jihad,” according to the complaint.

Fluke-Ekren allegedly discussed a plan with a witness in 2014 to attack a college in the U.S. by planting a backpack with explosives, justifying the attack as retaliation for children who died in U.S. airstrikes—an ISIS leader approved funding for the attack, but it was put on hold after Fluke-Ekren learned she was pregnant.

A witness said Fluke-Ekren “does not like America or Americans,” and would say she wished an attack took place in the U.S. when she would learn about one in other countries.

Fluke-Ekren also allegedly discussed attacking a shopping mall in the U.S. by using a device to detonate a vehicle full of explosives in the parking lot, but she was unable to proceed with the plan due to opposition from her husband, according to the complaint.

A witness saw one of Fluke-Ekren’s children, who was believed to be 5 or 6 at the time, holding a machine gun at her family’s home in Syria.

Tangent

According to witnesses, Fluke-Ekren’s former husband, whom she met in the U.S., led ISIS’ snipers, the complaint says. He died in an airstrike in early 2016 as he attempted a terrorist attack, and later that year she married a Bangladeshi ISIS member, who died shortly after their marriage. Fluke-Ekren went on to marry a “prominent” ISIS military leader.

What To Watch For

Fluke-Ekren is expected to make her initial appearance at the U.S. District Court in Alexandria in Virginia on January 31. Fluke-Ekren was apprehended in Syria and the FBI took custody of her on Friday.

Key Background

Fluke-Ekren is fluent in English and Arabic, and is believed to speak Turkish and Spanish. To stop the U.S. government from finding her, Fluke-Ekren sent a message to one of her family members through a third party saying she was dead, according to a witness who learned of it in 2018.

Big Number

11 or 12. That’s how a witness who knew Fluke-Ekren in Syria rated her on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being extremely radicalized. Fluke-Ekren was “off the charts,” the witness said.