American woman who led Islamic State battalion in Syria sentenced to 20 years

They said they were physically and sexually abused by their mother, and in letters to the court described the mistreatment in horrific detail. Fluke-Ekren denied the abuse.

Fluke-Ekren asked for just a two year sentence so she could raise her young children. She said at the outset of a lengthy, weepy speech that she took responsibility for her actions but spent most of her speech rationalizing and minimizing her conduct.

She denied the abuse allegations against her, and tried to accuse her oldest son of manipulating her daughter into making them.

She portrayed the Khatiba Nusaybah as something more akin to a community center for women that morphed into a series of self-defense classes as it became clear that the city of Raqqa, the Islamic State stronghold where she lived, faced siege and invasion.

She acknowledged that women and girls were taught to use suicide belts and automatic weapons but portrayed it as safety training to avoid accidents in a war zone where such weapons were common.