New York Woman Convicted of ISIS Training

A New York woman has been convicted of receiving weapons training from the Islamic State group. Halima Salman, 27, was found guilty Tuesday by a jury that heard evidence that she pledged loyalty to the extremist group and willingly participated in its activities.

Prosecutors presented jurors with a video of Salman holding an assault rifle, a photograph of her with the group's flag, and text messages she sent to her husband. Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Shami argued that the evidence showed Salman received military training from a terrorist organization responsible for attacks worldwide.

The defense portrayed Salman as a teenager unwittingly caught in Syria's civil war, initially by her father and later by an extremist husband whose commands she felt compelled to obey. Salman testified that attempts to leave would have resulted in death.

Salman, a U.S. citizen, was 17 when her father took her to Syria in 2017, reportedly for a trip to visit relatives in Turkey. She stated she was frightened and confused when masked gunmen surrounded them and they crossed into Syria, a destination she claimed she did not know her father was heading towards. She testified, "I do blame my father for a lot of things that happened."

She spent three months in housing controlled by the Islamic State group before reuniting with her family. The family relocated twice due to airstrikes. Salman recounted that on the first day of her marriage, her husband told her to "Get up, stupid wife, it's time for you to be a wife."

Much of her marriage involved domestic duties for her husband and mother-in-law. Her father died in 2018 from injuries sustained in an airstrike. Prosecutors contended that Salman had more agency than she claimed, pointing to her admission that she sent a religious song about Osama bin Laden to her husband. They also disputed her depiction of a difficult marriage, citing affectionate text messages.

Salman's husband recorded a video of her holding an assault rifle, which prosecutors stated demonstrated she had been trained to use it. Salman testified that she was complying with her husband's request to hold the weapon. She described her final year of marriage as particularly difficult, with constant bombings forcing them to live in the streets amidst visible casualties.

The couple eventually fled with other refugees. Salman testified that she told her husband they were separating and never saw him again. She was detained in Baghouz, Syria, in 2019 by forces opposed to the Islamic State group. She was arrested by U.S. authorities upon her return to New York in 2024.

Despite territorial losses in Iraq and Syria, the Islamic State group maintains sleeper cells that conduct attacks in the region.