ISIS is changing tactics, according to Rep. Mike McCaul, chairman of the House of Representatives' Homeland Security Committee.
"I think ISIS has a new, sort of, era of terror when you look at their spokesman [Muhammad al-Adnani] who was taken out by a drone strike. He talked about not coming to Iraq and Syria to the caliphate, but rather killing the kafir, as he called it, the nonbeliever, in their backyard," McCaul said Tuesday on Fox News' "America's Newsroom."
McCaul (R-Tex.) said that the president of Egypt's visit with President Donald Trump could have led to recent terror attacks. "They obviously target Christians in the West … You don't want to see it happen in the United States. We're very concerned about this new threat."
ISIS is sending a message with terror attacks in London and Nice, McCaul said. "They are projecting a message to attack by any means necessary to kill at home in your backyard. I think from a homeland security standpoint, that's what we're most concerned about."
Homeland security efforts have had success, McCaul said, but warned that attacks were on the rise. "This is far from over. They're plotting to hit the west, both aviation sector — we have a new threat in that arena — but also from the sort of home grown terrorism over the internet to kill where you are by any means, whether it's a vehicle, knife, or a gun."
"We've stopped a lot of bad things. It's hard to stop all of them," he said.
"Disaffected youth" are being drawn in by the ISIS ideology, McCaul said. "This is a very hard thing to stop, when you have someone radicalizing over the internet."
The congressman said his biggest fear is how surprising each attack is.
"We have 1,000 investigations in all 50 states. We've arrested 150 of these guys. But you don't know where it's going to pop up next. And that always — people ask what keeps me up at night. That's what keeps me up."
"We must remain clear-eyed about the threats we face," McCaul said in homeland security's monthly report released Wednesday, according to Fox News.
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