New York Woman Convicted of Receiving Islamic State Weapons Training After Teen Marriage in Syria

A federal jury in New York on Tuesday convicted Halima Salman, 27, a US citizen born in Brooklyn, of receiving weapons training from the Islamic State group. Prosecutors said she pledged loyalty to the group and willingly took part in its activities after her father took her to Syria as a teenager and arranged her marriage to one of its fighters. Jurors were shown a video of Salman holding an assault rifle, a photo of her with the group's flag and affectionate text messages she sent her husband. Brooklyn-based US Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr said the verdict held her accountable for joining a terrorist organization. Salman testified that she was 17 in 2017 when her father took her and her eight siblings on what they thought was a trip to Turkey, but they drove into Syria and were trapped in its civil war. She said she refused to be married off at 18 and repeatedly tried to get a divorce. Jurors began deliberating Thursday and had signaled on Monday that they struggled to reach unanimity. Salman, her mother and her defense attorneys wept after the verdict.

The Guardian US, representing left-leaning coverage, leads with her testimony, "You try to leave, it is death," and sets out the defense picture of a teenager trapped first by her father and then by a husband whose orders she had to follow. It also includes Nocella's statement, the jury's difficulty reaching a decision and the mother-daughter embrace after the verdict. The right-leaning Daily Mail headlines the case as a "female terrorist" who "sobs" and "tries to blame her father", and uses a photo of her with an ISIS flag. It quotes her saying she blames her father for much of what happened, and adds the Turkey-trip and eight-siblings details. Both sides report the same evidence and the same tearful courtroom scene. They differ mainly in framing, with the Guardian giving more space to the coercion defense and the Mail to the conviction and her character. NewsNation's headline largely matches the basic facts, calling her a teen bride.