WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) today released May’s Terror Threat Snapshot, a monthly assessment of the Committee’s continuing effort to highlight the growing threat America, the West, and the world face from ISIS and other Islamist terrorists.
Chairman Michael McCaul: “President Trump’s recent decisive action against ISIS in Syria shows that the United States will no longer turn a blind eye to terrorism or atrocities against innocent civilians. But as we near the alarming 200-mark for ISIS-linked plots against the West, there is a noticeable shift in the group’s directives. With the so-called ISIS ‘caliphate’ in the Middle East deteriorating, jihadists are increasingly told to stay where they are and carry out attacks at home. The shooting in France just before their country’s election illustrates ISIS’ attempts to instill fear and disrupt Western life. America is showing the world that we will no longer stand idly by while freedom is endangered, and we will continue to take the fight to those who wish us harm—at home and abroad.”
Key Points:
- The Trump administration authorized an operation against a Syrian military airfield this month, marking the United States’ first military action against Bashar al Assad and his troops since the beginning of the Syrian civil war. The operation was in response to an earlier chemical weapon attack by the Syrian government in northwestern Syria that killed more than 80 people.
- The U.S. continues its diligent fight against ISIS’ branch in Afghanistan, as it dropped its most powerful non-nuclear bomb on a network of underground tunnels used by ISIS Khorasan this month, killing 36 fighters in the bomb’s first ever combat use.
- The days before crucial national elections in France were marked by an ISIS-claimed attack and foiled ISIS terror plot. ISIS-took credit for an attack that left a police officer dead in the middle of one of Paris’ most popular tourist attractions, the famous Avenue de Champs Elysees, while a separate terrorist attack was foiled in Marseille.
- Two deadly Palm Sunday attacks against Coptic Christians by ISIS’ Sinai branch marked “the single deadliest day of violence directed against the Middle East’s largest Christian community in decades.” Egypt is no stranger to ISIS and its precursor group, Ansar Bayt al Maqdis, but it seems ISIS has turned a strong focus toward the country, investing more time, resources and energy into its fight.
The complete May Terror Threat Snapshot is available, here.
View the Committee’s interactive Terror Threat Snapshot, here.