US Ex-teacher Pleads Guilty to Leading ISIS Women's Brigade

The seal of the United States Department of State is seen in Washington, US, January 26, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
The seal of the United States Department of State is seen in Washington, US, January 26, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
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US Ex-teacher Pleads Guilty to Leading ISIS Women's Brigade

The seal of the United States Department of State is seen in Washington, US, January 26, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
The seal of the United States Department of State is seen in Washington, US, January 26, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

A former US schoolteacher who became a high-ranking ISIS official and organized an all-female military battalion, pleaded guilty Tuesday to supporting a foreign terrorist group, the Justice Department said.

Kansas-born Allison Fluke-Ekren, 42, admitted to engaging in "terrorism-related activities" in Syria, Libya, and Iraq between 2011 and 2019.

"Fluke-Ekren ultimately served as the leader and organizer of an ISIS military battalion, known as the Khatiba Nusaybah, where she trained women on the use of automatic firing AK-47 assault rifles, grenades, and suicide belts," the department said.

It is the first prosecution in the US of a female ISIS battalion leader, said First Assistant US Attorney Raj Parekh. More than 100 women and young girls received training. And some of the girls, who were as young as 10 or 11 years old, may wish to speak at Fluke-Ekren's sentencing hearing, Parekh said.

“Some of them may wish an opportunity to address the court because we would argue that there is lifelong trauma and pain that has been inflicted on them,” Parekh added.

Fluke-Ekren's husband was a member of the extremist Ansar al-Sharia group which attacked the US mission in Bebghazi, Libya in 2012, and then became a leader of an ISIS sniper group in Syria.

The department said the two were involved in extremist activities across the Middle East after they left the United States in 2011.

While in Syria, the department said, she spoke of desires to bomb a US shopping mall or university. she carried the nom de guerre Umm Mohammed al-Amriki.

In 2016-17 she became leader of the all-woman Khatiba Nusaybah battalion, which undertook physical, medical and weapons training to support ISIS.

Fluke-Ekren was apprehended in Syria sometime after the early-2019 territorial defeat of ISIS, and flown to the United States on January 28.

The court record indicates that her attorneys and the Justice Department spent months negotiating her guilty plea on a single count, supporting a foreign terrorist organization, a charge which brings up to 20 years in prison.

She is scheduled to be sentenced on October 25.



Erdogan Accuses Top Turkish Business Group of Political Meddling

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan delivers a statement during the United Nations climate change conference COP29, in Baku, Azerbaijan November 12, 2024. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File Photo
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan delivers a statement during the United Nations climate change conference COP29, in Baku, Azerbaijan November 12, 2024. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File Photo
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Erdogan Accuses Top Turkish Business Group of Political Meddling

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan delivers a statement during the United Nations climate change conference COP29, in Baku, Azerbaijan November 12, 2024. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File Photo
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan delivers a statement during the United Nations climate change conference COP29, in Baku, Azerbaijan November 12, 2024. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File Photo

President Tayyip Erdogan accused Türkiye's top business association, TUSIAD, of meddling in politics and undermining the government on Wednesday, piling pressure on a group already being investigated over an executive's remarks on democracy. Speaking to his ruling AK Party in the parliament, Erdogan said TUSIAD had "overstepped" and he dismissed it as a remnant of the past that had thrived on economic privilege and political influence.

"TUSIAD's mentality is a symbol of weak governments in Türkiye's past (and it is) full of businessmen who have grown under the shadow of unfair profits and privileges at the expense of the nation," he said.

"They once dictated politics through newspaper headlines. We put an end to that. We did not recognize any power above the will of the people," he said, accusing the group of fueling political instability and attempting to pressure the government. TUSIAD executive Omer Aras, who is the chairman of QNB's Turkish banking unit, last week criticized a government crackdown on dissenting figures, saying the probes into opposition leaders and journalists had shaken trust and damaged democracy. In response, a prosecutor's office opened an investigation into his remarks, prompting a drop in Istanbul-listed stocks. On Wednesday, Istanbul's prosecutors' office expanded the probe to include TUSIAD President Orhan Turhan, citing his statements at the group's general assembly as "misleading and disruptive to public order."

A statement on Wednesday from the Istanbul prosecutor's office said Aras and Turhan were under investigation for "attempting to influence a fair trial" and "publicly spreading misleading information," and that authorities had ordered them to appear for questioning. TUSIAD, whose members account for 85% of Türkiye's foreign trade and 80% of the country's corporate tax revenue, said on Tuesday it was working for national interests.

It did not address the investigation into Aras directly and did not immediately comment on Erdogan's remarks.

Erdogan said his government has raised per-capita income, built roads and spread prosperity since coming to power more than two decades ago. "As long as we are in power, no one will bring back the old system where a handful of elites siphoned off state resources," he said.

Opposition lawmakers have faced a wave of arrests, detentions and probes in the last few months that critics say aim to silence dissent and weaken Erdogan's rivals' electoral prospects. The government dismisses this accusation and says the judiciary is independent.