An Alabama woman who joined ISIS now wants to come home as US-backed forces are seizing the group’s last-held territory in Syria.
Hoda Muthana was captured as she fled ISIS-controlled territory, according to an exclusive interview in The Guardian. Once captured, she claimed she “deeply regrets” joining the Islamic State and pleaded to go home. (RELATED: Report: Syrian Forces Corner ISIS In Last Foothold)
The Guardian described 24-year-old Muthana as “one of ISIS’s most prominent online agitators,” where she often called for American blood to be spilled. Leaving home four years ago to join the terror group, she first lived in Raqqa, the capital of the so-called caliphate.
Some of her tweets were published in a Buzzfeed story, in which Muthana gave them exclusive access.
An undated photograph of a man described as Abdelhamid Abaaoud that was published in the Islamic State’s online magazine Dabiq and posted on a social media website. REUTERS/Social Media Website via Reuters
“Terrorize the Kuffar [derogatory term for non-Muslims] at home,” is one example of a tweet she sent out, instructing Americans who could not join ISIS in Syria how best to wage war against the infidel.
Once in Syria, she told her parents that “every true Muslim was required to travel to the Islamic State if they wanted to get into Heaven.”
Her father, Mohamad, had even tried to convince her to come home by citing the Quran. When that did not work, he told her that he would cut off contact with her until she decided to come back.
Muthana married three times—once to an Australian jihadist, then to a Tunisian man and finally to a Syrian jihadist.
Muthana told her followers in her posts to use trucks or other large vehicles to run people over on holidays.
This is Hoda Muthana, the daughter of Yemeni refugees who left the US to join ISIS pic.twitter.com/T0KZtAd77E
— Jack Posobiec ???????? (@JackPosobiec) February 19, 2019
She and her 18-month child were brought to a camp in northern Syria, where she is currently being held while pleading to return to the United States.
“I would tell them please forgive me for being so ignorant, and I was really young and ignorant and I was 19 when I decided to leave. I believe that America gives second chances. I want to return and I’ll never come back to the Middle East. America can take my passport and I wouldn’t mind,” she told The Guardian. She has still yet to contact any U.S. officials.
Muthana isn’t the only ISIS bride attempting to return home. Shamima Begum is a girl from the United Kingdom who joined ISIS when she was 15 and just recently gave birth.
#BREAKING: It’s NOT coming home! ISIS Bride Shamima Begum to lose UK Citizenship! https://t.co/OU9LdzRyPS
— Imam Mohamad Tawhidi (@Imamofpeace) February 19, 2019
Begum may also lose her British citizenship, according to Sky News.