Daesh makes suicide threat facing US gravest since 9/11 attacks - paper

The terrorist threat facing the US and its European allies is "bigger, wider and deeper" than at any point since the September 11 attacks 15 years ago, the White House’s top counterterrorism official said in a grim review of global threats Wednesday, The Washington Times reported.

The dramatic rise of Daesh group and its ability to expand around the world presents a danger that is "considerably less predictable" than those posed by al Qaeda at the height of their power, shortly after the 2001 attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center, National Counterterrorism Center chief Nick Rasmussen said.

The assessment could pose a political problem for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, coming on a day when national security issues were dominating the campaign debate and Clinton was looking to build on her role in helping shape foreign and security policy as US President Barack Obama’s first secretary of state.

As Daesh threatens to return to its terrorist roots in the wake of massive battlefield losses in its Syrian and Iraqi strongholds, the challenge in keeping the group from attacking the American homeland will likely fall to Clinton or Republican rival Donald Trump.

"This will be a challenge for the incoming administration," said Michael Leiter, former director of the National Counterterrorism Center, during the same symposium on Wednesday.

Trump said Wednesday that, if elected, he would order the Pentagon to draft a new strategy for defeating Daesh group within the first 30 days of his administration. 

But Trump has already co-opted many of the hallmarks of the Obama administration’s counterterrorism strategy, from increased use of drones to a reliance on special operations forces, to combat Daesh.

Source: MENA