Kansas woman tried for leading ISIS battalion while planning attacks on US schools (photos)

A former Kansas teacher has seldom become the military leader of the Islamic State while teaching other women and children how to use weapons and bombs, U.S. prosecutors said today.

The 42-year-old was accused of possessing material in support of terrorism in 2019 but is only now appearing in a Virginia court after being arrested in Syria.

She is accused of leading an ISIS military battalion and planning terrorist attacks on university camps.

Women in the US make up about 10 percent of those accused of collaborating with the Islamic State, but none of the previous cases has had a woman in such a high position in the group.

Islamic State imposes strict codes on women in its ranks, which began to be accepted as fighters when ISIS territories in Syria and Iraq were attacked in 2016 and 2017.

“Fluke-Ekren turned her extremist beliefs into deeds by leading and organizing an ISIS military battalion. “She trained women and children in the use of AK-47 rifles, grenades and suicide bombers in support of ISIS assassination targets,” said Chief Prosecutor Raj Parekh.

According to documents Fluke-Ekren left the US for Egypt in 2008.

In 2011 she emigrated to Libya and then to Syria.

Authorities say her husband traveled with her and became an ISIS-trained sniper. He had later died in an airstrike, unspecified in documents.

In 2014 she devised a plan to plant explosives at a U.S. university in response to an airstrike against militants.

Fluke-Ekren later married a drone expert, who also died later.

Her next husband would be a well-known military leader in Rtaka, when Fluke-Ekren also became the leader of the ISIS women’s battalion.

The militant trained women in martial arts, driving and using weapons and explosives. Witnesses said she was fluent in Arabic, English, Spanish and Turkish.

In 2018, according to prosecutors, she had escaped US authorities by sending a message to her family where she was said to have died. But prosecutors say she had decided to die as an ISIS martyr.

A former Kansas teacher has seldom become the military leader of the Islamic State