Washington, Nov 2 (TIWN) The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that a woman from Kansas who organised and led an all-female battalion of the Islamic State (IS) terror group in Syria has been sentenced to 20 years in jail.

Allison Fluke-Ekren was sentenced on Tuesday by a court in the Eastern District of Virginia.

A statement issued by the DOJ said that Fluke-Ekren travelled overseas and from September 2011 to about May 2019, engaged in terrorist acts in multiple countries, including Syria, Libya and Iraq.

"She ultimately served as the leader and organiser of the IS military battalion, known as the Khatiba Nusaybah, where she trained women on the use of automatic firing AK-47 assault rifles, grenades and suicide belts, " the statement said, adding that more than 100 women and young girls, some as young as 10 years old, received military training.

During the sentencing hearing, the court incorporated into the record two separate letters submitted by Fluke-Ekren's son and daughter, both of whom wrote about being abused when they were minors.