American woman convicted of Islamic State training

An American woman was found guilty on Tuesday of receiving military training from the Islamic State group after she travelled to Syria as a teenager.

Halima Salman, 27, was convicted of receiving military-type training from IS when she was 18, prosecutors said. The offence could carry 10 years of imprisonment, and she will be sentenced at a later date.

Prosecutors said Salman travelled at 17 to an IS-controlled area of Syria in late 2016 or early 2017, via Russia and Turkey. They alleged she was trained to use an assault rifle and received ammunition from an ISIS military battalion when she was 18.

Court documents said Salman married German-Afghan IS fighter Abu Ali while in Syria.

In early 2019, Salman was taken into custody by Syrian forces opposed to IS and was placed in a relocation camp until 2024, when she returned to the United States and was arrested.

United States Attorney Anthony Nocella said the verdict held Salman accountable for "joining forces with a terrorist organization."

Salman's defence attorney said she was "the victim" of her mother's husband taking her as a child to IS territory in Syria, and said Salman was unaware of his pro-IS beliefs.

A US-led coalition was deployed to Iraq and Syria in 2014 to fight IS after the group seized large areas of territory. A Kurdish official told AFP earlier this month that Kurdish forces still hold about 2,200 foreign relatives of suspected IS fighters in a camp in northeastern Syria.