Kansas mom gets 20 years for leading Islamic State battalion

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.

Prosecutors had sought a maximum 20-year term on the terrorism charge.

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 from an early age.