A woman and former resident of Kansas has been charged with providing and conspiring to support the terrorist organization ISIS. The woman, Allison Fluke-Ekren, 42, allegedly joined ISIS then led an all-female battalion known as “Khatiba Nusaybah” in 2016 that was trained to use AK-47 rifles, grenades and suicide belts.
The criminal complaint was filed back in 2019 but recently made public on Saturday Jan. 29, 2022, when Fluke-Ekren was brought back to the United States to face charges.
The complaint details information from the FBI and the eyewitness observations of six individuals who observed Fluke-Ekren’s alleged terrorist conduct.
One witness said that Fluke-Ekren told them she recruited for and planned a potential attack on a U.S. college campus and a shopping mall. According to the same witness cited in the memorandum detailing her conduct, Fluke-Ekren “considered any attack that did not kill a large number of individuals to be a waste of resources.”
Another witness said over 100 women and young girls received military training from Fluke-Ekren in Syria on behalf of ISIS. She reportedly sought to motivate her trainees by explaining how female fighters can ensure the Islamic State is kept alive through the use of weapons like rifles and suicide vests packed with explosives
First Assistant United States Attorney Raj Parekh wrote that:
“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 believe Fluke-Ekren moved to Syria around 2012 to join ISIS and that her husband was killed in early 2016 while carrying out a terrorist attack in the Syrian city Tell Abyad.
Prosecutors said she then married a Bangladeshi ISIS member who specialized in drones who died around 2017. Fluke-Ekren then remarried again to an ISIS leader who was responsible for the terrorist group’s defense of Raqqa, Syria.
According to court papers, Fluke-Ekren moved to Egypt in 2008 and routinely traveled between the U.S. and Egypt with her kids. A family blog called 4KansasKids shows photos of her and her children in the U.S. and photos of them posing in front of the pyramids in Egypt.
In 2004 an article by the Kansas newspaper Lawrence Journal-World on homeschooling featured Fluke-Ekren. She told the paper she pulled her kids out of public and private schools because she was dissatisfied with her children’s results at the schools.
Court papers do not indicate how Fluke-Ekren was arrested but state she was apprehended in Syria then transferred to FBI custody while overseas.
She is scheduled to make her initial appearance at the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, on Monday Jan. 31, 2022.
