Halima Salman on trial over alleged IS training

Halima Salman, a 27-year-old American woman alleged to have been an Islamic State group member, went on trial in New York on Tuesday on a charge of receiving military-type training from the group.

Filings in Brooklyn Federal Court say the charge could carry 10 years in prison. Prosecutors allege Salman traveled at 17 to an IS-controlled area of Syria in late 2016 or early 2017 via Russia and Turkey, and that at 18 she was trained to use an assault rifle and received ammunition from an ISIS military battalion.

Court documents say Salman married German-Afghan IS fighter Abu Ali while in Syria. She was taken into custody in early 2019 by Syrian forces opposed to IS, held in a relocation camp until 2024, and arrested after returning to the United States.

At a bail hearing, Salman's defense attorney said she was a victim of her mother's husband bringing her to IS territory as a child, and said she was unaware of his pro-IS beliefs.

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