Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said Sunday that the reach of the radical Islamic State terror group is growing even as it loses ground in the number of areas it controls in the Middle East.
“It is losing territory but at the same time it is expanding its global presence,” Schiff said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
Schiff said the Islamic State was “vicious and adaptive” and that the growing number and intensity of the group’s attacks were proof of that. He noted that investigators believe that the group’s recent attacks at an airport in Istanbul, Turkey that killed 44 people were perpetrated by operatives that included people born in Russia and other Caucasus nations like Uzbekistan.
That was unusual for the Islamic State, which has not often used attackers from those regions. Schiff said that indicates that the group is having more success in recruiting there.
“We are seeing a return of the Caucasus fighters,” Schiff said.
Schiff’s Republican counterpart on the committee, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., made similar points about the Islamic State’s growing ability to carry out terror attacks in an appearance earlier that day on “Fox News Sunday.”
“What I am afraid of is that attacks like what you have seen in California or in Orlando will become the norm,” Nunes said. “Jihadism from North Africa to the Philippines continues to grow.”
