Kansas girl who became ‘Empress of ISIS’ jailed for 20 years for leading female death squad in Syria

An “All-American girl” from Kansas who smuggled her children into Syria, became the “Empress of ISIS” and led an all-female death squad has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Allison Fluke-Ekren, 42, who grew up on a farm in Overbrook, was given the highest possible sentence after pleading guilty to charges related to her “terror crime.”

Her conviction in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia also heard harrowing stories from her own children, who described Fluke-Ekren as a “monster” who tortured them for sexual pleasure.

Prosecutors have now described the sentence as “inadequate” to match Fluke-Ekren’s “monstrous acts of terror and the immeasurable damage she has caused” – but 20 years was the maximum that could be given under the indictment.

Fluke-Ekren was an ISIS member for more than eight years, traveling through war zones in Libya, Iraq and Syria.

She took the name Umm Mohammed al-Amriki and rose through the ranks of the terror group to become leader of an all-female battalion called ‘Khatiba Nusaybah’ in 2017.

Fluke-Ekren trained young girls to use AK-47s, grenades and suicide belts – before being sent on missions including helping male fighters defend IS-controlled Raqqa

US Attorney Raj Parekh told Monday’s sentencing that Fluke-Ekren “in effect became the empress of ISIS.”

“She has brainwashed and trained young girls to kill.”

Her daughter, Leyla Ekren, who was married off at 13 to an IS fighter in Syria, said her mother was motivated by a “lust for control and power.”

“I want people to see what kind of person she was,” her daughter said.

“She left me in Raqqa with my rapist,” she said, referring to her IS fighter husband.

In a written statement to the court, her son Gabriel, who like his sister waived anonymity, added: “My mother is a monster who enjoys torturing children for sexual pleasure.

“My mother is a monster who is very adept at manipulating and controlling her emotions to her advantage.

“My mother is a monster with no love for her children, no excuse for her actions.

“She has the blood, pain and suffering of all her children on her hands.”

At one point, prosecutors played audio recordings of phone conversations between Fluke-Ekren and her daughter, recorded by the FBI.

Her daughter, standing in the public gallery, stuffed her ears with her fingers as the tapes played out loud.

Born Allison Brooks, Fluke-Ekren grew up in a “loving and stable home” in Overbrook, Kansas, and was considered a “gifted” student, the US attorney said.

“There’s nothing in her background that can explain her behavior,” Parekh said.

After leaving her first husband, with whom she had two children, Fluke-Ekren attended the University of Kansas, where she married a fellow student named Volkan Ekren and became a Muslim.

She later earned a teaching degree at a university in Indiana.

The couple had five children together and adopted another after the child’s parents died as suicide bombers in Syria.

The family moved to Egypt in 2008 and to Libya in 2011, where, the US attorney said, “Fluke-Ekren’s persistent pursuit of positions of power and influence began to educate young women in extremist ideology and violence.”

Her former sister-in-law, Amy Fluke, 49, previously told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview that the mother began sending her ex-husband emails and notes demanding more than $6,000 for the return of their two children shortly after. she had moved abroad .

She also faked her own death while living in Syria and cruelly taunted her ex-husband, James Fluke, by saying their daughter Alaina was dead.

James told DailyMail.com earlier this year: “I hope they lock her up and throw away the key.

“She kidnapped my children for ten years. She is manipulative. She always has been.

“She always wanted to be in the spotlight. There is no way to adequately describe how manipulative she is.”

Fluke-Ekren was in Benghazi, Libya in September 2012, when the Islamist militant group Ansar al-Sharia attacked the US mission and CIA annex there, killing the US ambassador and three other Americans.

Fluke-Ekren, a fluent Arabic speaker, assisted Ansar al-Sharia by “reviewing and summarizing the contents of stolen US government documents.”

The family left Libya in late 2012 or early 2013, moving between Iraq, Turkey and Syria, becoming deeply involved with IS, and living for a time in the group’s stronghold in Mosul.

Fluke-Ekren’s second husband – the leader of an IS sniper unit – was murdered in 2015.

She married three more times, including a Bangladeshi IS drone expert and an IS army chief responsible for the IS defense of Raqqa in 2017, and had four more children.

Larry Miller, who taught Fluke-Ekren’s school science class in the 1990s, previously said, “How does someone like Allison, an all-American girl, become someone who wants to go out and kill?”

A tearful Fluke-Ekren admitted in court that she had provided combat training, but said it was for self-defense only.

“I never fought against myself,” she said. “I never shot or fired a single bullet.”

Fluke-Ekren’s claim that she was being manipulated by her Turkish-born second husband was dismissed.

Fluke-Ekren, who wore a dark green prison jacket and black headscarf, addressed the court and asked the judge for a “compassionate sentence” of just two years in prison.

“I deeply regret my choices,” she told the judge. “I ask forgiveness from anyone who has been hurt by my actions.”