Allison Fluke-Ekren accused of leading all-female Islamic State brigade likely to plead guilty

A Kansas-born woman who led an all-female brigade for the Islamic State in Syria is likely to plead guilty to federal charges Tuesday, according to a court docket.

Allison Fluke-Ekren, 42, was charged with conspiring to provide material support for terrorism in 2019 by federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia and taken into U.S. custody in January. She is being held at the Alexandria Detention Center, and the deadline for prosecutors to file an indictment is next week.

A brief entry in Fluke-Ekren’s criminal case on Monday says a “plea agreement hearing” has been scheduled for Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema. It is not clear to what charges Fluke-Ekren may plead guilty, and such agreements can collapse before they are finalized in court.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment. An attorney for Fluke-Ekren did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The charges against Fluke-Ekren are unusual; women make up only a small fraction of those charged by U.S. prosecutors with supporting the Islamic State, and Fluke-Ekren was alleged to have held an unusually high position.

Witnesses described Fluke-Ekren as an Islamic State member with various responsibilities, who was fluent in several languages and discussed ideas for a mass-casualty attack on U.S. soil, according to court documents filed by prosecutors.

“Fluke-Ekren translated her extremist beliefs into action by serving as the appointed leader and organizer of an Islamic State 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,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Raj Parekh wrote in a detention memo in January.

She is accused of helping female members of the Islamic State prepare for a Kurdish siege of Raqqa, Syria, by training them in martial arts and packing “go bags” of rifles and other weapons, according to court documents.

Fluke-Ekren moved to Egypt in 2008, then wound up in Syria, where, by prosecutors’ account, she hosted new Islamic State recruits and helped organize services in Islamic State-controlled Raqqa. Authorities say her second husband traveled with her and became a sniper trainer for the Islamic State; he later died in an airstrike.

Source: Stripes