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, a battalion in which roughly 100 women and girls — some as young as 10 years old — learned how to use automatic weapons and detonate grenades and suicide belts. One of Fluke-Ekren’s daughters was among those who said she received such training. The daughter and Fluke-Ekren’s oldest son both urged the judge to impose a 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.