Isis poses ‘sustained’ threat to US for years to come despite loss of territory
The United States will face years of “sustained vulnerability” from Islamic State fighters even after the fall of its so-called caliphate in Iraq and Syria, intelligence chiefs have warned.
Giving evidence in the wake of the recent bombings in New York and New Jersey bombings, they told a Senate panel on Tuesday that pushing Isis out of the territory it has claimed will lead to a diaspora of operatives in the US and Europe rather than the destruction of the jihadi army.
Nicholas Rasmussen, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, expanded upon an emerging consensus within US intelligence circles, saying: “The effects we’re looking to see are simply going be delayed or lag behind the physical progress on the battlefield,” Rasmussen told the Senate homeland security and government affairs committee.
“It’s not surprising. It puts us in a period of sustained vulnerability that I don’t think any of us are comfortable with, but it’s a reality.” He doubted that such a period would end within a year of the caliphate’s downfall.