Overview

Allison Fluke-Ekren, an American citizen, is a senior leader of ISIS. She engaged in terrorism-related activities across Syria, Libya, and Iraq from around September 2011 until May 2019.“American Woman Who Led ISIS Battalion Pleads Guilty Allison Fluke-Ekren Admits to Providing Military Training to Over 100 Women and Young Girls in Syria on Behalf of ISIS and Numerous Other Terrorist Acts,” U.S. Department of Justice, June 7, 2022, https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/american-woman-who-led-isis-battalion-pleads-guilty. After turning herself in to local police in Syria in May 2019, Fluke-Ekren was transferred to U.S. custody on January 28, 2022.“American Woman Who Led ISIS Battalion Pleads Guilty,” U.S. Department of Justice, June 7, 2022, https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/pr/american-woman-who-led-isis-battalion-pleads-guilty; “American Woman Who Led ISIS Battalion Charged with Providing Material Support to a Terrorist Organization,” U.S. Department of Justice, January 29, 2022, https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/american-woman-who-led-isis-battalion-charged-providing-material-support-terrorist#:~:text=A%20criminal%20complaint%20filed%20in,and%20charges%20Fluke%2DEkren%20with. On June 7, Fluke-Ekren appeared at a federal court in Virginia where she pleaded guilty to charges of organizing and leading an all-female military battalion in Syria on behalf of ISIS.“American Woman Who Led ISIS Battalion Pleads Guilty Allison Fluke-Ekren Admits to Providing Military Training to Over 100 Women and Young Girls in Syria on Behalf of ISIS and Numerous Other Terrorist Acts,” U.S. Department of Justice, June 7, 2022, https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/american-woman-who-led-isis-battalion-pleads-guilty. She was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment on November 1, 2022.Holmes Lybrand, “Kansas woman who led all-female ISIS battalion sentenced to 20 years in prison,” CNN, November 1, 2022, https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/01/politics/isis-kansas-woman-who-led-battalion-sentenced/index.html.

Fluke-Ekren was born and raised in Kansas, where she eventually went to college and received degrees in biology and teaching. In 2008, Fluke-Ekren moved with her second husband and her four children to Cairo, Egypt.Isabel Vincent, “How US-born Allison Fluke-Ekren went from science teacher to ISIS radical,” New York Post, February 3, 2022, https://nypost.com/2022/02/03/how-kansas-born-allison-fluke-ekren-went-from-teacher-to-isis.

In 2011, Fluke-Ekren and her family relocated to Benghazi, Libya, where her husband, Volkan Ekren, was reportedly a member of Ansar al-Sharia, a violent Salafist group in Libya that seeks to transform Libya into an Islamic state governed in accordance with sharia (Islamic law). Fluke-Ekren’s husband reportedly removed a box of documents and an electronic device from an American diplomatic compound following the 2012 attacks on the compound and a nearby C.I.A. base in Benghazi. Fluke-Ekren and her husband then reportedly prepared summaries of the documents that were then given to Ansar al-Sharia leaders.Adam Goldman, “From Benghazi to Raqqa, a Kansas Woman Left a ‘Trail of Betrayal’,” New York Times, June 7, 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/07/us/politics/islamic-state-fluke-ekren.html.

Citing Ansar al-Sharia’s lack of activity in Libya, in late 2012, Fluke-Ekren and her husband relocated to Turkey, then Syria in 2014, and eventually settled in Mosul, Iraq in 2015. While in Iraq, Fluke-Erken assisted ISIS personnel in running and maintaining homes for widowed women whose husbands died while fighting for ISIS.“American Woman Who Led ISIS Battalion Pleads Guilty Allison Fluke-Ekren Admits to Providing Military Training to Over 100 Women and Young Girls in Syria on Behalf of ISIS and Numerous Other Terrorist Acts,” U.S. Department of Justice, June 7, 2022, https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/american-woman-who-led-isis-battalion-pleads-guilty; Adam Goldman, “From Benghazi to Raqqa, a Kansas Woman Left a ‘Trail of Betrayal’,” New York Times, June 7, 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/07/us/politics/islamic-state-fluke-ekren.html.

Upon her return to Syria around 2016, Fluke-Ekren obtained authorization from ISIS’s “wali” (mayor) of Raqqa, to establish a women’s center that would provide medical services, educational services, childcare, and training to women and girls. At the center, Fluke-Ekren also assisted fellow female ISIS members in training women and girls on the use of AK-47 assault rifles, grenades, and suicide belts.“American Woman Who Led ISIS Battalion Pleads Guilty Allison Fluke-Ekren Admits to Providing Military Training to Over 100 Women and Young Girls in Syria on Behalf of ISIS and Numerous Other Terrorist Acts,” U.S. Department of Justice, June 7, 2022, https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/american-woman-who-led-isis-battalion-pleads-guilty.

Given Fluke-Ekren’s success with the women’s center, the wali of Raqqa approved the creation of “Khatiba Nusaybah” in February 2017. Led by Fluke-Ekren, Khatiba Nusaybah was a military battalion comprised entirely of female ISIS members. Media sources reported more than 100 women and girls, including Fluke-Ekren’s own daughters, were trained within the battalion.Adam Goldman, “From Benghazi to Raqqa, a Kansas Woman Left a ‘Trail of Betrayal’,” New York Times, June 7, 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/07/us/politics/islamic-state-fluke-ekren.html.

In May 2019, after attempting to flee Syria, Fluke-Ekren surrendered to a local police station in Qabasin, Syria, where she was later taken to a detention facility in Jarabulus, Syria. Fluke-Ekren was eventually transferred in custody to the Eastern District of Virginia on January 28, 2022. Fluke-Ekren was charged with providing and conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.“American Woman Who Led ISIS Battalion Pleads Guilty,” U.S. Department of Justice, June 7, 2022, https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/pr/american-woman-who-led-isis-battalion-pleads-guilty; “American Woman Who Led ISIS Battalion Charged with Providing Material Support to a Terrorist Organization,” U.S. Department of Justice, January 29, 2022, https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/american-woman-who-led-isis-battalion-charged-providing-material-support-terrorist#:~:text=A%20criminal%20complaint%20filed%20in,and%20charges%20Fluke%2DEkren%20with.

On June 7, 2022, Fluke-Ekren appeared at a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, where she pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support for terrorism and admitted to being the leader of Khatiba Nusayah.“American Woman Who Led ISIS Battalion Pleads Guilty,” U.S. Department of Justice, June 7, 2022, https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/pr/american-woman-who-led-isis-battalion-pleads-guilty. Although claiming she had only trained women in survival techniques, gun safety, and self-defense, evidence and testimonies from Fluke-Ekren’s daughter proved otherwise. Fluke-Ekren was handed the maximum sentence for her crimes and was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment on November 1, 2022.Holmes Lybrand, “Kansas woman who led all-female ISIS battalion sentenced to 20 years in prison,” CNN, November 1, 2022, https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/01/politics/isis-kansas-woman-who-led-battalion-sentenced/index.html.