US woman pleads guilty to leading Islamic State battalion

ALEXANDRIA, VA. >> An American woman who prosecutors say led an all-female battalion of Islamic State militants in Syria pleaded guilty on Tuesday in a case that a prosecutor called a first of its kind in the United States.

Allison Fluke-Ekren broke down sobbing after admitting in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, to conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, a charge that carries a maximum 20year prison sentence.

The guilty plea resolves a criminal case that came to light in January after FlukeEkren,

42, who once lived in Kansas, was brought to the U.S. to face accusations that she led an Islamic State unit of women and young girls in the Syrian city of Raqqa and trained them in the use of automatic rifles, grenades and suicide belts.

It is the first prosecution in the U.S. of a female Islamic State battalion leader, said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Raj Parekh, who told a judge that some of the more than 100 women and girls who received training may wish to speak at FlukeEkren's sentencing hearing.

“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 said.

Charging documents in the case trace Fluke-Ekren's travels and activities in the Middle East over the last decade, though they don't shed light on what inspired her alleged allegiance to foreign militant groups.

She had been in Syria since late 2012 or early 2013, where according to one witness cited in court documents, she spoke openly about her desire to conduct an attack in the U.S., including by parking car loaded with explosives in an underground garage of a shopping mall. Another witness said Fluke-Ekren spoke about a desire to bomb a college campus.