ISIS poses an increasing deadly threat to US: lawmaker

Washington: The Islamic State terror group poses an increasingly deadly threat to the US, its allies and global security, a top American lawmaker warned on Thursday.

"The alarming rise of Islamist extremists has spawned a deadly terror campaign across the globe. Sadly, we again have seen the resulting carnage recently in Brussels, Jerusalem, and Kabul. Our enemies are continuing to exploit growing instability and the retreat of American leadership," said Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul as he release the latest monthly issue of Terror Threat Snapsot. "ISIS poses an increasingly deadly threat to the United States, its allies, and global security," said the five page snapshot.

ISIS and its supporters have exploited sanctuaries across the Middle East and North Africa, the flow of nearly 40,000 jihadists into Syria, a massive refugee wave and security gaps to execute a terror campaign that includes 83 attack plots against Western targets since 2014, it said. There have been two dozen ISIS-linked attack plots inside the United States, where authorities have arrested more than 80 ISIS-linked suspects, the report said.

McCaul said ISIS terror operatives have deployed from their Syrian safe havens and exploited security gaps to infiltrate and infest Europe. Al Qaeda thrives amidst the war in Yemen, methodically carving out greater sanctuary, he said.

"The Iranian regime, empowered by a dangerous nuclear deal, grows increasingly belligerent as it tries to extract more undeserved economic concessions. Reversing this dangerous course remains an urgent imperative for homeland security and for our broader interests around the world," the powerful US lawmaker said.

According to the report, Al Qaeda and its allies have seized critical terrain and regenerated their terror networks. Al Qaeda's key ally and enabler in Afghanistan, the Taliban, controls more territory than at any point since 2001.

In Yemen, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has gained control over three provincial capitals, an estimated US $100 million worth of bank deposits, and nearly 400 miles of coastline, according to a nongovernmental expert and a media outlet investigation.

Al Qaeda's Syrian affiliate has also established a sizable safe haven, it said. According to the snapshot, the Iranian regime continues to meet Western concessions with escalating hostility. Iran has made several attempts to smuggle weapons into Yemen in the past month. These destabilizing actions follow Iran 's kidnapping of American sailors, another illicit ballistic missile test, unabated aggression in Syria and repeated threats against Israel, it said.