A US-born woman who says she regrets having joined the Islamic State group has appealed again to come home from the refugee camp where she lives with her small son in Syria.

The government is refusing to let Hoda Muthana return to the US, arguing that she is not an American citizen.

In an interview with NBC News published Saturday, Muthana said she "regrets every single thing" done by IS, which she joined in 2014 after embracing extremist ideology while living with her family in Alabama.

"Anyone that believes in God believes that everyone deserves a second chance, no matter how harmful their sins were," Muthana said.&nbsp;

The interview was conducted in northeast Syria at the Al-Roj refugee camp, controlled by Kurdish forces, where Muthana lives with her two-year-old son Adam.

Muthana said she fears for her life because she could be targeted by people at the camp who have not renounced IS.

"I did not support the beheadings from (IS) from day 1, until now I do not support any of their crimes and suicide attacks," Muthana said.&nbsp;

The US government has repatriated several American women linked to the group, along with their children, but not Muthana.

Washington argues she is not a US citizen even though she was born in the US because she is the daughter of a diplomat serving for the Yemeni government at the time.

The children of US-based foreign diplomats do not enjoy citizenship by birthright.

Muthana has filed suit to try to return to the US. She had travelled to Syria on a US passport.

"I am a citizen and I have papers to prove it. I am as American as a blond-haired blue-eyed girl and I would like to stay in my country and do American things," Muthana told NBC.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has called her a terrorist.

Muthana married three IS fighters, all of whom died in combat.

She took part actively in IS propaganda, according to the Counter Extremism Project.

She had urged jihadists in America to "go on drive-bys, and spill all of their blood."

Muthana also hailed an attack in 2015 in France against the offices of the magazine Charlie Hebdo, which left 12 people dead.

In the interview with NBC she said "it was an ideology that really was just a phase." She refused to discuss those earlier comments.

She said she is willing to face the US justice system if she is allowed to return.

A US-born woman who says she regrets having joined the Islamic State group has appealed again to come home from the refugee camp where she lives with her small son in Syria.

A US-born woman who says she regrets having joined the Islamic State group has appealed again to come home from the refugee camp where she lives with her small son in Syria. The government is refusing to let Hoda Muthana return to the US, arguing that she is not an American citizen. In an interview with NBC News published Saturday, Muthana said she "regrets every single thing" done by IS, which she joined in 2014 after embracing extremist ideology while living with her family in Alabama. "Anyone that believes in God believes that everyone deserves a second chance, no matter how harmful their sins were," Muthana said. The interview was conducted in northeast Syria at the Al-Roj refugee camp, controlled by Kurdish forces, where Muthana lives with her two-year-old son Adam. Muthana said she fears for her life because she could be targeted by people at the camp who have not renounced IS. "I did not support the beheadings from (IS) from day 1, until now I do not support any of their crimes and suicide attacks," Muthana said. The US government has repatriated several American women linked to the group, along with their children, but not Muthana. Washington argues she is not a US citizen even though she was born in the US because she is the daughter of a diplomat serving for the Yemeni government at the time. The children of US-based foreign diplomats do not enjoy citizenship by birthright. Muthana has filed suit to try to return to the US. She had travelled to Syria on a US passport. "I am a citizen and I have papers to prove it. I am as American as a blond-haired blue-eyed girl and I would like to stay in my country and do American things," Muthana told NBC. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has called her a terrorist. Muthana married three IS fighters, all of whom died in combat. She took part actively in IS propaganda, according to the Counter Extremism Project. She had urged jihadists in America to "go on drive-bys, and spill all of their blood." Muthana also hailed an attack in 2015 in France against the offices of the magazine Charlie Hebdo, which left 12 people dead. In the interview with NBC she said "it was an ideology that really was just a phase." She refused to discuss those earlier comments. She said she is willing to face the US justice system if she is allowed to return.

'Everyone deserves second chance': US-born Islamic State bride appeals again to come home from Syria

The father of an Alabama woman who fled to Syria to marry an Islamic State fighter filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump's administration over her right to return with her 18-month-old baby after the US president said she will not be allowed back on American soil.

Hoda Muthana, 24, joined the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, in 2014 after telling her parents she was going to Atlanta, Georgia, as part of a field trip connected with her business studies at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Instead, she withdrew from college and used her tuition reimbursement to purchase a plane ticket to Turkey, according to court documents.&nbsp;

From Turkey, she traveled to Syria, where she married twice, both times to ISIS fighters who later died in combat. Muthana fled to the al-Hawl refugee camp in December last year amid the collapse of the ISIS caliphate in Syria and Iraq.&nbsp;

"I have instructed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and he fully agrees, not to allow Hoda Muthana back into the Country!" Trump tweeted on Wednesday.

"She does not have any legal basis, no valid US&nbsp;Passport, no right to a passport, nor any visa to travel to the United States," Pompeo said in a statement. "We continue to strongly advise all US&nbsp;Citizens not to travel to Syria."

Ahmed Ali Muthana filed the lawsuit Thursday, accusing the Trump administration of an "unlawful attempt" to revoke Hoda Muthana's citizenship.

Muthana has said she is willing to face federal charges upon her return. 
But Trump has ordered officials to bar the former IS propagandist from entering the US.

The lawsuit emphasises that the woman's father is not arguing against any prosecution from the US government over her actions in Syria, but wants lawful recognition of her US citizenship and the citizenship of her child.

Muthana has "publicly acknowledged her actions and accepted full responsibility," a statement announcing the lawsuit said.

"In Ms Muthana's words, she recognises that she has 'ruined' her own life, but she does not want to ruin the life of her young child."

Pompeo said on Wednesday that Muthana had no "legal basis" or "right" to a passport or any US visa.

Pompeo confirmed her father's prior status as a Yemeni diplomat for the United Nations was behind the administration's decision.

Under US law, the children of diplomats are not considered US citizens.

The exact timeline of when Ahmed Ali Muthana stopped serving as a diplomat and when his daughter was born is now being contested by the Trump administration.

The family maintains Muthana was previously recognised as a citizen by the US Department of State and given a US passport in 2004.

Earlier this week, Muthana's lawyer, Hassan Shibly, shared a photo on Twitter of what he said was her US birth certificate.&nbsp;

The case has similarities to that of UK-born teenager Shamima Begum who has been stripped of her British citizenship. Begum fled London to join ISIS in 2015 but is now seeking to return to the UK.&nbsp;

The father of an Alabama woman who fled to Syria to marry an Islamic State fighter filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump's administration over her right to return with her 18-month-old baby after the US president said she will not be allowed back on American soil.

The father of an Alabama woman who fled to Syria to marry an Islamic State fighter filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump's administration over her right to return with her 18-month-old baby after the US president said she will not be allowed back on American soil. Hoda Muthana, 24, joined the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, in 2014 after telling her parents she was going to Atlanta, Georgia, as part of a field trip connected with her business studies at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Instead, she withdrew from college and used her tuition reimbursement to purchase a plane ticket to Turkey, according to court documents. From Turkey, she traveled to Syria, where she married twice, both times to ISIS fighters who later died in combat. Muthana fled to the al-Hawl refugee camp in December last year amid the collapse of the ISIS caliphate in Syria and Iraq. "I have instructed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and he fully agrees, not to allow Hoda Muthana back into the Country!" Trump tweeted on Wednesday. "She does not have any legal basis, no valid US Passport, no right to a passport, nor any visa to travel to the United States," Pompeo said in a statement. "We continue to strongly advise all US Citizens not to travel to Syria." Ahmed Ali Muthana filed the lawsuit Thursday, accusing the Trump administration of an "unlawful attempt" to revoke Hoda Muthana's citizenship. Muthana has said she is willing to face federal charges upon her return. But Trump has ordered officials to bar the former IS propagandist from entering the US. The lawsuit emphasises that the woman's father is not arguing against any prosecution from the US government over her actions in Syria, but wants lawful recognition of her US citizenship and the citizenship of her child. Muthana has "publicly acknowledged her actions and accepted full responsibility," a statement announcing the lawsuit said. "In Ms Muthana's words, she recognises that she has 'ruined' her own life, but she does not want to ruin the life of her young child." Pompeo said on Wednesday that Muthana had no "legal basis" or "right" to a passport or any US visa. Pompeo confirmed her father's prior status as a Yemeni diplomat for the United Nations was behind the administration's decision. Under US law, the children of diplomats are not considered US citizens. The exact timeline of when Ahmed Ali Muthana stopped serving as a diplomat and when his daughter was born is now being contested by the Trump administration. The family maintains Muthana was previously recognised as a citizen by the US Department of State and given a US passport in 2004. Earlier this week, Muthana's lawyer, Hassan Shibly, shared a photo on Twitter of what he said was her US birth certificate. The case has similarities to that of UK-born teenager Shamima Begum who has been stripped of her British citizenship. Begum fled London to join ISIS in 2015 but is now seeking to return to the UK.

ISIS bride's family files lawsuit against Trump over her right to return to America

President Donald Trump said Wednesday he is barring a US-born former Islamic State propagandist from returning home, making the highly unusual case that she is not a US citizen.

Trump's refusal to admit 24-year-old Hoda Muthana comes just as <a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/take-back-jihadists-trump-tells-europe-197895">he is pressing Europeans to repatriate their own Islamic State fighters</a> and will likely face legal challenges, with US citizenship extremely difficult to lose.

Trump said on Twitter he has "instructed" Secretary of State Mike Pompeo "not to allow Hoda Muthana back into the country" — a break with usual US protocol not to comment on individuals' immigration issues.

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
I have instructed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and he fully agrees, not to allow Hoda Muthana back into the Country!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1098327855145062411?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 20, 2019</a></blockquote>
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"Ms. Hoda Muthana is not a US citizen and will not be admitted into the United States," Pompeo said in a terse statement.

"She does not have any legal basis, no valid US passport, no right to a passport, nor any visa to travel to the United States," he added.

The US generally grants citizenship to everyone born on its soil and the Alabama-raised Muthana is believed to have traveled to Syria on a US passport.

But a US official said a later investigation showed that she had not been entitled to her passport, adding: "Ms. Muthana's citizenship has not been revoked because she was never a citizen."

Officials declined further comment but in a loophole that could boost the government case, Muthana's father had been a diplomat from Yemen -- and children of diplomats are not automatically given citizenship.

Muthana's lawyer, Hassan Shilby, showed a birth certificate that demonstrated she was born in New Jersey in 1994 and said her father had ceased being a diplomat "months and months" before her birth.

"She is a US citizen. She had a valid passport. She may have broken the law and, if she has, she's willing to pay the price," Shilby told AFP at his office in Tampa.

He said Muthana wanted due process and was willing to go to prison if convicted.

"We cannot get to a point where we simply strip citizenship from those who break the law. That's not what America is about. We have one of the greatest legal systems in the world, and we have to abide by it."

US-born and radicalised 
Just this weekend, Trump took to Twitter to chastise European allies that have not taken back hundreds of Islamic State prisoners caught in Syria, where Trump plans to withdraw US troops.

Comparatively few Americans have embraced radical Islam, with the Counter Extremism Project at George Washington University identifying 64 who went to join the Islamic State group in Syria or Iraq.

Muthana, raised in a strict household in Hoover, Alabama, said she was brainwashed by social media messages and headed to Syria without her parents' knowledge in 2014.

Shortly afterward, Muthana posted on Twitter a picture of herself and three other women who appeared to torch their Western passports, including an American one.

She went on to post vivid calls on social media to kill Americans, glorifying the ruthless extremist group notorious for its beheadings that for a time ruled vast swathes of Syria and Iraq.

But with the Islamic State group down to its last stretch of land, Muthana said she has renounced extremism and wants to return home with her toddler son, born to one of her three jihadist husbands.

"To say that I regret my past words, any pain that I caused my family and any concerns I would cause my country would be hard for me to really express properly," she said in a handwritten note to her lawyer.

Tough to lose US citizenship 
The US decision on Muthana comes amid rising debate in Europe on the nationality of extremists. Britain recently revoked the citizenship of Shamina Begum, who similarly traveled to Syria and wants to return to her country of birth.

Britain asserted that she was entitled to Bangladeshi citizenship due to her heritage, but the Dhaka government on Wednesday denied that she was eligible, leading her to become effectively stateless.

US citizenship is significantly more difficult to lose. The 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, ratified in 1868 after the Civil War as slavery was abolished, establishes that anyone born in the country is a citizen with full rights.

The US Supreme Court in the landmark 1967 Afroyim decision rejected the government's attempt to revoke the nationality of a Polish-born naturalized American after he voted in Israel.

And last year a federal judge rejected a bid to strip the nationality of a Pakistani-born naturalized American who was convicted in a plot to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge.

But Trump has campaigned on a hard line over immigration and raised the prospect of ending birthright citizenship ahead of last year's congressional elections.

In 2011, President Barack Obama ordered drone strikes that killed two Americans in Yemen — prominent Al-Qaeda preacher Anwar al-Awlaki and his 16-year-old son — but did not believe it was possible to revoke citizenship.

President Donald Trump said Wednesday he is barring a US-born former Islamic State propagandist from returning home, making the highly unusual case that she is not a US citizen.

President Donald Trump said Wednesday he is barring a US-born former Islamic State propagandist from returning home, making the highly unusual case that she is not a US citizen. Trump's refusal to admit 24-year-old Hoda Muthana comes just as he is pressing Europeans to repatriate their own Islamic State fighters and will likely face legal challenges, with US citizenship extremely difficult to lose. Trump said on Twitter he has "instructed" Secretary of State Mike Pompeo "not to allow Hoda Muthana back into the country" — a break with usual US protocol not to comment on individuals' immigration issues. I have instructed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and he fully agrees, not to allow Hoda Muthana back into the Country! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 20, 2019 × "Ms. Hoda Muthana is not a US citizen and will not be admitted into the United States," Pompeo said in a terse statement. "She does not have any legal basis, no valid US passport, no right to a passport, nor any visa to travel to the United States," he added. The US generally grants citizenship to everyone born on its soil and the Alabama-raised Muthana is believed to have traveled to Syria on a US passport. But a US official said a later investigation showed that she had not been entitled to her passport, adding: "Ms. Muthana's citizenship has not been revoked because she was never a citizen." Officials declined further comment but in a loophole that could boost the government case, Muthana's father had been a diplomat from Yemen -- and children of diplomats are not automatically given citizenship. Muthana's lawyer, Hassan Shilby, showed a birth certificate that demonstrated she was born in New Jersey in 1994 and said her father had ceased being a diplomat "months and months" before her birth. "She is a US citizen. She had a valid passport. She may have broken the law and, if she has, she's willing to pay the price," Shilby told AFP at his office in Tampa. He said Muthana wanted due process and was willing to go to prison if convicted. "We cannot get to a point where we simply strip citizenship from those who break the law. That's not what America is about. We have one of the greatest legal systems in the world, and we have to abide by it." US-born and radicalised Just this weekend, Trump took to Twitter to chastise European allies that have not taken back hundreds of Islamic State prisoners caught in Syria, where Trump plans to withdraw US troops. Comparatively few Americans have embraced radical Islam, with the Counter Extremism Project at George Washington University identifying 64 who went to join the Islamic State group in Syria or Iraq. Muthana, raised in a strict household in Hoover, Alabama, said she was brainwashed by social media messages and headed to Syria without her parents' knowledge in 2014. Shortly afterward, Muthana posted on Twitter a picture of herself and three other women who appeared to torch their Western passports, including an American one. She went on to post vivid calls on social media to kill Americans, glorifying the ruthless extremist group notorious for its beheadings that for a time ruled vast swathes of Syria and Iraq. But with the Islamic State group down to its last stretch of land, Muthana said she has renounced extremism and wants to return home with her toddler son, born to one of her three jihadist husbands. "To say that I regret my past words, any pain that I caused my family and any concerns I would cause my country would be hard for me to really express properly," she said in a handwritten note to her lawyer. Tough to lose US citizenship The US decision on Muthana comes amid rising debate in Europe on the nationality of extremists. Britain recently revoked the citizenship of Shamina Begum, who similarly traveled to Syria and wants to return to her country of birth. Britain asserted that she was entitled to Bangladeshi citizenship due to her heritage, but the Dhaka government on Wednesday denied that she was eligible, leading her to become effectively stateless. US citizenship is significantly more difficult to lose. The 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, ratified in 1868 after the Civil War as slavery was abolished, establishes that anyone born in the country is a citizen with full rights. The US Supreme Court in the landmark 1967 Afroyim decision rejected the government's attempt to revoke the nationality of a Polish-born naturalized American after he voted in Israel. And last year a federal judge rejected a bid to strip the nationality of a Pakistani-born naturalized American who was convicted in a plot to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge. But Trump has campaigned on a hard line over immigration and raised the prospect of ending birthright citizenship ahead of last year's congressional elections. In 2011, President Barack Obama ordered drone strikes that killed two Americans in Yemen — prominent Al-Qaeda preacher Anwar al-Awlaki and his 16-year-old son — but did not believe it was possible to revoke citizenship.

Trump says US woman who joined Islamic State cannot return

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'Everyone deserves second chance': US-born Islamic State bride appeals again to come home from Syria

ISIS bride's family files lawsuit against Trump over her right to return to America

Trump says US woman who joined Islamic State cannot return