NEW YORK (AA) – Daesh’s reach and capability has not been slowed despite suffering battlefront losses, the head of the CIA said Thursday.
“We judge that ISIL is training and attempting to deploy operatives for further attacks. ISIL has a large cadre of Western fighters who could potentially serve as operatives for attacks in the West,” John Brennan told the Senate Intelligence Committee.
He said “important progress” has been made against the militant group in Syria and Iraq and Daesh has lost territory in both countries.
The group’s finance and media operations have been squeezed, he said, and cited reports that some of its fighters have become disillusioned.
Despite the gains, however, Daesh remains a “formidable, resilient, and largely cohesive enemy,” and “would have to suffer even heavier losses of territory, manpower, and money for its terrorist capacity to decline significantly.”
As a result, he expects Daesh to step up its attacks in order to “maintain its dominance of the global terrorism agenda.”
Brennan’s statement comes less than a week after an apparent Daesh-inspired massacre that many consider the worst mass shooting in U.S. history.
U.S.-born Omar Mateen allegedly shot and killed 49 victims and injured 53 others early Sunday at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.
He reportedly pledged allegiance to Daesh in a 911 call he made during the attack.
Other reports suggest, however, that Mateen expressed affinity to various militant groups with opposing ideologies.
