Alabama woman who joined Islamic State sues to return to US

Twenty-four-year-old Hoda Muthana is in a Syrian refugee camp with her 18-month-old son after she fled what’s left of the Islamic State’s self-declared homeland. Her lawyers say she regrets joining the organisation.

This undated image provided by attorney Hassan Shibly shows Hoda Muthana, an Alabama woman who left home to join the Islamic State after becoming radicalized online. Muthana realized she was wrong and now wants to return to the United States, Shibly, a lawyer for her family said on Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2019.

The father of an Alabama woman who joined the Islamic State in Syria has filed suit against the Trump administration seeking to allow her return to the United States.

Twenty-four-year-old Hoda Muthana is in a Syrian refugee camp with her 18-month-old son after she fled what’s left of the Islamic State’s self-declared homeland. Her lawyers say she regrets joining the organisation.

But the administration announced earlier this week that the U.S.-born Muthana is not an American citizen because her father was a Yemeni diplomat at the time of her birth in New Jersey. That determination was initially made by the Obama administration after she joined IS.

A suit filed Thursday in Washington argues her father had ceased being a diplomat and she is a citizen entitled to return.