AL HAWL CAMP, Syria — A Hamilton-born woman who left Canada in 2015 to join ISIL fighters is now in a Syrian refugee camp hoping to be allowed to come home.

Kimberly Gwen Polman, 46, surrendered last month to coalition forces fighting ISIL and is detained in a camp in northeastern Syria, along with an Alabama woman, Hodan Muthana.

Both women, interviewed by the New York Times, said they were trying to figure out how to have their passports reissued, and how to win the sympathy of the two nations they scorned.

"I don't have words for how much regret I have," said Polman, born into a Reformed Mennonite community in Hamilton — to an American mother and Canadian father.

In 2011, Polman, who had dual citizenship, was a single mom studying legal administration at Douglas College in Coquitlam, B.C.

She had left the Reformed Mennonite faith years earlier, and at some point converted to Islam.

In 2015, she joined the Islamic State group after corresponding with a man in Syria, she then used an American passport to fly from Vancouver to Istanbul and married him.

By the time Polman arrived, the terrorist group's crimes were well documented, including beheading journalists, enslaving and systematically raping women from the Yazidi minority, and burning prisoners alive. Both she and Muthana were evasive when asked about that brutality.

"I'm not interested in bloodshed, and I didn't know what to believe," Polman said. "These are videos on YouTube. What's real? What's not real?"

Two of her siblings, speaking from British Columbia, said Polman had once been told she had a mental illness. "She hasn't created an easy life for herself," said a brother, who did not want to be identified for fear of reprisals.

Her sister said that in summer 2015, Polman left on a trip to Austria for two weeks.

It was only after the family heard from Canadian authorities that they realized she had joined ISIL.

"We've been able to help her as a family in the past," the sister said. "This was the one time we haven't been able to help her. So it's been very hard for us."

The Spectator was unable to reach Polman's siblings in B.C. or officials at Douglas College in Coquitlam.

Hamilton Mennonite Church pastor Alissa Bender had no knowledge of Polman and said Reformed Mennonite is a different faith group without a church in the city.

The Mennonite Archives in Waterloo also has no record of Polman.

Muthana, 24, was a college student who had become convinced of the righteousness of ISIL.

Now, after being married to three Islamic State fighters and witnessing executions like those she had once cheered on social media, Muthana says she is deeply sorry and wants to return home to the United States.

Polman and Muthana met in the final pocket of the caliphate, which by January was less than 15 square kilometres. They made their escape within days of each other.

Weeks later, after having no contact from the American or Canadian authorities, Polman and Muthana reached out to the Red Cross to get help. They are also in touch with a lawyer who is trying to help navigate their return to North America.

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Scott Bardsley, a spokesperson for Public Safety Canada, would not comment on Polman's case, but told the Spectator that it is a Criminal Code offence to travel abroad to engage in terrorist activity.

"The government is aware of some Canadian citizens currently detained in Syria. There is no legal obligation to facilitate their return," he added.

An FBI spokesperson declined to comment on the two cases, but said that agents typically build a criminal case against any American who joined ISIL.

The U.S. government now claims Muthana is not an American citizen because her dad was a diplomat when she was born in New Jersey in 1994.

"She does not have any legal basis, no valid U.S. passport, no right to a passport nor any visa to travel to the United States," said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

George Washington University terrorism expert Seamus Hughes said the foreign women of ISIL — despite talk of being brainwashed and groomed online to become jihadi brides — "aided and abetted many ISIS atrocities and sometimes directly perpetrated them."

Muthana and Polman acknowledge that many would question whether they deserved to be brought back home.

"How do you go from burning a passport to crying yourself to sleep because you have so much deep regret? How do you do that?" Polman asked. "How do you show people that?"

—With files from Carmela Fragomeni, the Hamilton Spectator

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- Fierce battles near final ISIL foothold in eastern Syria

- Canadians that joined ISIL and were captured won't get Ottawa's help

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