U.S. woman convicted of getting Islamic State training after becoming teen bride to a fighter

A New York woman whose father took her to Syria as a teenager and arranged her marriage to an Islamic State fighter was convicted Tuesday of receiving weapons training from the militant group.

Prosecutors said Halima Salman, a U.S. citizen, pledged loyalty to the extremist group and willingly participated in its activities. Jurors were shown a video of her holding an assault rifle, a photo of her with the group's flag and loving text messages she sent her husband.

Brooklyn-based U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said in a statement that the verdict held Salman “accountable for joining forces with a terrorist organization.”

The defense sought to portray Salman, now 27, as a teenager who was unwittingly trapped in Syria's civil war, first by her father and later by an extremist husband whose orders she had to follow.

“You try to leave, it is death,” Salman testified. She said she refused to be “married off” at age 18 and repeatedly tried to get a divorce.

Salman, her mother and even her defense attorneys wept after hearing the verdict. Still in tears, Salman and her mother later hugged each other across the railing between the audience and the courtroom well.

Jurors, who…

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