Ex-Kansas Teacher Led All-Female ISIS Battalion After Uprooting Family To Syria, Plotting Attacks On US Campuses

A former Kansas teacher could face up to 20 years in prison following her arrest, after being accused of leading an all-female battalion of the Islamic State (IS) group that plotted terror attacks on Americans, federal prosecutors announced as they unsealed the criminal case on Friday.

The suspect, Allison Fluke-Ekren, 42, faces charges of providing and conspiring to provide material support or resources to ISIS, a designated foreign terrorist organization. Following a conviction, she may serve up to 20 years of jail time, the BBC reported.

According to the FBI affidavit released on Saturday after she arrived back to the Eastern District of Virginia, the all-female IS battalion known as Khatiba Nusaybah was established in Raqqa, Syria in 2016, during which the city was the de facto capital of the IS group.

The battalion was solely composed of female IS members married to male IS fighters and were allegedly led by Fluke-Ekren. The suspect reportedly became the organizer of the group soon after she joined it.

The paperwork stated Fluke-Ekren trained women and children to use AK-47 assault rifles and suicide vests in Syria, CNN noted. She would also provide the group and its members with "lodging, translating speeches made by ISIS leaders... and teaching extremist ISIS doctrine.”

She mainly taught women and children as young as 5 with self-defense in the use of AK-47 assault rifles, grenades, and suicide vests, according to a witness quoted in the FBI affidavit. Accordingly, she recruited operatives for a potential future attack on a U.S. college campus.

On at least one occasion, she wanted to terrorize a shopping mall using explosives. At the time, Fluke-Ekren reportedly said they have to massacre several people so their resources would not go to waste.

"To conduct the attack, Fluke-Ekren allegedly explained that she could go to a shopping mall in the United States, park a vehicle full of explosives in the basement or parking garage level of the structure, and detonate the explosives in the vehicle with a cell phone triggering device," the Justice Department statement says.

According to the Daily Beast, Fluke-Ekren and her husband brought $15,000 into Syria to secure an array of weapons, grenades, and other military supplies. Prosecutors said she has reportedly been involved in a vast hive of ISIS activities since 2014.