German mother on terror charges after 'joining women-only ISIS unit' in Syria

Solale M is also accused of child protection offences after taking two children with her

Solale M is said to have fled as ISIS lost control of Raqqa in 2017. Reuters

A German-Iranian mother has been charged with terrorism offences for allegedly joining a women-only ISIS combat unit after taking her two children to Syria.

The woman — identified only as Solale M — was one of three German women arrested in October after they were brought back to the country from a detention camp in north-east Syria.

German prosecutors say Solale M travelled to Syria, via Turkey, in June 2014 with her husband and two children whom she brought up in accordance with ISIS ideology in Tabqa and Raqqa.

While her husband plotted attacks in Europe by ISIS fighters disguised as refugees, she joined Khatiba Nusaybah, a military battalion comprising only of the wives of ISIS fighters who were taught to use weapons and prepare booby traps, according to the German Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office.

The family fled at the end of 2017 as ISIS lost most of its territory but were captured by Kurdish forces. She has now been accused of membership of a terrorist organisation abroad and offences against children.

The two other German woman arrested at the same time as Solale M were also charged earlier this year with child protection and terrorism offences. Prosecutors say one of the women took her six-year-old daughter to the stoning of a woman and showed her execution videos.

The US announced in January that they had charged an American woman, Allison Fluke-Ekren, 42, with being the leader of the all-women battalion.

Prosecutors say she became leader of the group after it was set up by the ISIS-appointed mayor of Raqqa in 2016.

She was said to have led training classes and taught children how to use assault rifles, grenades and suicide belts.

If found guilty, she faces up to 20 years in prison in the US.

Germany previously jailed a member of the battalion in 2020. The woman, named only as Carla-Josephine S, went to Syria with her three children without the knowledge of her husband.

She was said to have driven women to weapons training and kept a hand grenade that she could use to kill herself and her children and opponents in the event of an attack.