Tuesday at the House Armed Services Committee hearing on the U.S. strategy against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), former CIA Acting Director Michael Morell warned ISIS could expand it’s hold sphere of influence to parts of Libya.
Morell said “ISIS has gained affiliates faster than al Qaeda ever did. From nothing a year ago, there are now militant groups in nearly 20 countries that have sworn allegiance to ISIS. They have conducted attacks that have already killed Americans and they carry the potential to themselves to grab large amounts of territory.”
He added, “Libya is a place where this could happen in the near term. ISIS controls territory in Libya. They are currently expanding that territory and foreign fighters are beginning to go to Libya to fight with the ISIS group there. I would not be surprised if we woke up one morning and ISIS in Libya had grabbed a large part of Libyan territory. The same kind of blitzkrieg on a smaller scale that we saw in Iraq.”
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