Halima Salman, 27, appeared in Brooklyn Federal Court on 13 October 2026 to face an accusation that reaches back to her time in ISIS-controlled Syria: that, after turning 18, she received military training from the Islamic State group, commonly called ISIS.
The charge carries a potential sentence of 10 years in prison. Prosecutors must persuade the jury that Salman willingly received training from a terrorist organisation. Her defence says her route into ISIS territory began with a family journey when she was still a child.
Salman was 17 when she travelled to Syria in late 2016 or early 2017, via Russia and Turkey. Court documents say she travelled from John F. Kennedy Airport through Moscow and Turkey with her mother and eight siblings in 2016.
The records refer to the man who took the family there as Salman's father, while her lawyer describes him as her mother's husband. The defence says he took the family to Turkey for several months, then inadvertently crossed into Syria and arrived in a town occupied by Islamic State. Salman, her lawyer said, was unaware of his pro-ISIS beliefs.
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Her defence attorney told the court Salman was “the victim of her (mother's husband) bringing her as a child to ISIS territory in Syria.” The lawyer said the man “brought the family, including Halima's mother and all eight of Halima's siblings, to Turkey for a few months” before inadvertently crossing the border.
In Syria, Salman married Abu Ali, described in court documents as a German-Afghan ISIS fighter, between July 2017 and March 2018. Prosecutors say that after her 18th birthday and marriage, she joined an all-female battalion made up of ISIS brides.
Adam Amir, an assistant US attorney, told the jury in his opening statement: “After the defendant turned 18, she married an ISIS partner who was a few years older than her.”
Amir said: “After she arrived in Syria, got married, came of age, the defendant received military training by ISIS, and the defendant practiced that military training.” According to a court filing, the training included use of an assault rifle, and Salman received ammunition from an ISIS military battalion.
The prosecution says its evidence includes video of Salman “holding, aiming, and walking with a deadly assault rifle.”
Court proceedings have described Salman's father's death in conflicting terms, as either a rocket strike or a bomb blast. Salman later paid a smuggler to leave Syria, left her husband and fled to Iraqi Kurdistan.
In early 2019, Syrian forces opposed to ISIS took Salman into custody and placed her in a relocation camp, where she remained until 2024. She returned to the US in May 2024, arriving at JFK with her mother and eight siblings, and was arrested.
Law enforcement sources say Salman is the first alleged female ISIS member to face a federal court trial in the US. The case turns on the line between a teenager brought into ISIS territory by her family and the actions prosecutors say she took after becoming an adult.
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