Kansas mom gets 20 years for leading Islamic State battalion

By MATTHEW BARAKAT
Associated Press

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. That’s the maximum the judge could have imposed. Allison Fluke-Ekren admitted that she led the Khatiba Nusaybah. Roughly 100 women and girls, some as young as 10 years old, learned how to use automatic weapons and detonate grenades and suicide belts in the battalion. One of Fluke-Ekren’s daughters was among those who said she received such training. The daughter and Fluke-Ekren’s oldest son both requested the maximum sentence. They said they were physically and sexually abused by their mother. Fluke-Ekren denied the abuse and rationalized her actions during a weepy speech at Tuesday’s hearing.