US officials: IS losses on battlefield won't end threat

Published September 08, 2016

FILE - In this March 1, 2016 file photo, FBI Director James Comey testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. Despite the Islamic State group’s loss of territory, the Islamic extremists will continue to pose serious national security problems for the United States and Europe in coming years, the directors of the FBI and CIA said Thursday, Sept. 8, 2016. "The threat that I think will dominate the next five years for the FBI will be the impact of the crushing of the caliphate, which will happen,” Comey said at a national security conference in Washington. “Through the fingers of that crush are going to come hundreds of hardened killers, who are not going to die on the battlefield. They are going to flow out." ( AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File) (The Associated Press)

The FBI and CIA directors say that despite the group's loss of territory, Islamic State militants will continue to pose serious national security problems for the United States and Europe.

CIA Director John Brennan said at an intelligence conference Thursday in Washington that many fighters who don't die on the battlefield will try to return to their home countries, where they could launch IS-inspired attacks.

FBI Director James Comey says if the IS caliphate is crushed, many surviving militants — individuals he described as "hardened killers" — will flow into western Europe and try to duplicate the Paris and Brussels attacks or try to bring the fight to the United States.

Comey says the U.S. must help its European allies share intelligence among themselves and with the United States.

URL

https://www.foxnews.com/us/us-officials-is-losses-on-battlefield-wont-end-threat