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Who is Hoda Muthana? US ISIS jihadi bride who wants to return home from Syria

The 24-year-old American, who spread chilling messages of hate on Twitter said she made a 'big mistake' joining Isis

AMERICAN-born ISIS bride Hoda Muthana who moved to Syria four years ago is now pleading to come back to the US.

Living in the same camp as British Isis recruit Shamima Begum, she left her home in Alabama and became a high-profile supporter of Isis's campaign.

 Hoda Muthana in her 2013 high school graduation photo. She became radicalised in the same year
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Hoda Muthana in her 2013 high school graduation photo. She became radicalised in the same yearCredit: Hoover High School 2012 Yearbook

Who is Hoda Muthana?

Muthana, now 24, and her 18-month-old son are both living in the al-Hawl refugee camp - alongside Shamima Begum, fellow Isis bride who is pleading return to the UK.

She was 20 when she used her college tuition money to join Islamic State and left her conservative family in Alabama behind.

First she lived in Raqqa, in Syria, where she married an Australian jihadist.

After he died during the war, she married her second husband - who had the same fate. She is now married to a Syrian man.

She and her son escaped from Susa - an area close to the front line - around six weeks ago.

But the American was captured by the Kurds and taken to al-Hawl, a camp for isis family members that is currently holding around 40,000 people.

According to reports, she is the only US citizen among the estimated 1,500 foreign women and children there.

 Hoda Muthana, at right in the head scarf, poses for a photo with her 11th-grade English class at Hoover High School in Hoover, Alabama
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Hoda Muthana, at right in the head scarf, poses for a photo with her 11th-grade English class at Hoover High School in Hoover, AlabamaCredit: Hoover High School 2012 Yearbook

What has she said about joining Isis?

Speaking to from the refugee camp, Muthana said that she was attracted to the terrorist organisation via their online campaign.

Over her years of being a jihadi bride her Twitter became a chilling collection of hateful, murderous and vile Tweets.

After her first husband Suhan Rahman was killed she tweeted: "Americans wake up! Men and women altogether. You have much to do while you live under our greatest enemy, enough of your sleeping! Go on drivebys, and spill all of their blood, or rent a big truck and drive all over them. Veterans, Patriots, Memorial, etc day … Kill them."

However, unlike Begum who has openly said that she has "no regrets" over her move to Syria in 2015, Muthana has shown more remorse.

She has said that moving to the country was a "big mistake" and that she would happily hand her passport over to the American authorities as she claims that she has no intention of leaving the country again.

I’m just a normal human being who has been manipulated

She said: "We were basically in the time of ignorance […] and then became jihadi, if you like to describe it that way,” she said. “I thought I was doing things correctly for the sake of God."

The 24-year-old has said that she has not been in contact with US officials but has said that she was "young and ignorant" and has begged them to forgive her.

On February 20, Muthana begged to return home after being forced to eat grass to survive in Syria.
The 24-year-old says she's "thankful for America's freedoms" and regrets ever aligning herself with ISIS.
In an interview with , while holding her 18-month-old son, Muthana said she "definitely" regretted leaving her home in Hoover, Alabama, after becoming radicalised online.
She said: "It’s not Islamic, at all – anyone who says so, I will fight against it.
"I’m just a normal human being who has been manipulated once and hopefully never again."

 Her plea came less than 24 hours after British Shamima Begum, who has just given birth to a baby boy, declares that she wants to return to the UK
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Her plea came less than 24 hours after British Shamima Begum, who has just given birth to a baby boy, declares that she wants to return to the UKCredit: Sky News

Will she be let back in to the US?

She once called for Muslims to "spill American blood" is now begging US authorities for the chance to return home to Alabama.

Hoda Muthana was 20 when she used her college tuition money to join ISIS in 2014, during which she became one of ISIS's most vocal agitators with a series of blood-curdling Twitter posts.

Since then Muthana has been found living at Syrian refugee camp having lost her second husband in war, and is currently married to her third spouse, a Syrian.

For the past six weeks she has been the only American at al-Hawl Syrian camp with her 18-month-old son after they were captured by Kurdish forces.

Speaking to The Guardian, Muthana said she made a "big mistake" joining ISIS, and the experience was "very mind-blowing".

She told the paper: "I would tell them (US officials) 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."

Donald Trump has urged other western countries to repatriate captured fighters.

He said in a tweet: "The US does not want to watch as these ISIS fighters permeate Europe, which is where they are expected to go.

"We do so much, and spend so much - time for others to step up and do the job that they are so capable of doing."

Otherwise, he said, the US would be forced to release them.

Hoda Muthana - Timeline

May 2013 - Graduates from Alabama Hoover High School. Becomes increasingly interested in Islamic religious practices

Autumn 2013 - Secretly creates a Twitter account with thousands of followers, meets a number of ISIS supporters

November 2014 - Tells her family she's going to Atlanta on a school trip, instead flies to Turkey and crosses into ISIS-held territory in Syria

December 2014 - Marries 23-year-old Suhan Rahman, an Australian ISIS fighter also known as Abu Jihad al-Australi.

March 2015 - Rahman is killed in a Jordanian airstrike

2015 - Soon after marries her second husband, a Tunisian fighter. Together they have a son, Adam

January 2019 - Fled the village of Susa near Baghuz, slept in the desert with a group of ISIS exiles.

Was captured by Kurdish forces who brough to Syria refugee camp al-Hawl

February 2019 - Muthana says she was 'brainwashed' and begs forgiveness to return to the US




 

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