US secretary of state Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday that the US will refuse to take Muthana back, saying she is “not a US citizen”. Speaking from al-Hawl refugee camp in northern Syria, Muthana, who was once one of Isis’s most prominent online agitators, said she had been brainwashed and had misunderstood her faith when she aligned herself with Isis. Muthana was born to parents from Yemen who became naturalized American citizens, according to the Counter Extremism Project at George Washington University. In late 2014, shortly after moving to Syria, Muthana posted on Twitter a picture of four women who appeared to torch their Western passports, including an American one. But with the Islamic State group down to its last stretch of land, Muthana said she had renounced extremism and wanted to return home.

Source: The Guardian February 20, 2019 20:09 UTC