Prosecutors reveal link between terror defendant in Virginia and Islamic State ’empress’ from Kansas

By MATTHEW BARAKAT
Associated Press

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — Prosecutors say a northern Virginia man arrested last week on terrorism charges has a husband-wife relationship with another American who was dubbed by prosecutors as an “empress of ISIS” for her work to establish an all-female Islamic State battalion. Thirty-three-year-old Mohammed Chhipa, of Springfield, Virginia, is charged with providing material support to a terrorist group. Prosecutors say he transferred tens of thousands of dollars to the Islamic State. At a detention hearing Wednesday, prosecutors also disclosed a relationship between Chhipa and Allison Fluke-Ekren, an American from Kansas who is serving a 20-year prison sentence after admitting she organized and led an Islamic State battalion.