ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A Kansas native who led an all-female Islamic State battalion when she lived in Syria has been sentenced to 20 years in prison, the maximum possible sentence.
Fluke-Ekren, 42, admitted that she led the Khatiba Nusaybah, a battalion in which roughly 100 women and girls — some as young as 10 years old — learned how to use automatic weapons and detonate grenades and suicide belts.
One of Fluke-Ekren's daughters was among those who said she received such training. The daughter and Fluke-Ekren's oldest son both urged the judge to impose a maximum sentence.
They said they were physically and sexually abused by their mother, and described the mistreatment in horrific detail in letters to the court. Fluke-Ekren denied the abuse.
Fluke-Ekren's status as a U.S.-born woman who rose to a level of leadership status in the Islamic State makes her story unique among terror cases. Prosecutors say the abuse she inflicted on her children from a young age helps explain how she went from an 81-acre farm in Overbrook, Kansas, to an Islamic State leader in Syria, with stops in Egypt and Libya along the way.
Fluke-Ekren asked for just a two-year sentence so she could raise her young children. She said at the outset of a lengthy speech that she takes responsibility for her actions but spent most of her speech rationalizing her conduct.