ISIS ‘number-one threat’ to US, McCaul says

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mike McCaul (R-Texas) on Sunday warned that extremists’ training grounds in Iraq are more pronounced than those in the lead-up to 9/11.

“I would say the vacuum, the training ground, the state they’re creating in Syria and Iraq is far surpassing what we saw before 9/11 in Afghanistan and Pakistan,” McCaul said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” 

{mosads}Members of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) are focused on establishing an Islamic state in the region first, McCaul explained. After that, their next plan of attack is targeting the West and the United States. 

“They’re so extreme that core al Qaeda, Zawahiri has denounced them for their tactics,” McCaul said. Ayman al-Zawahiri is al Qaeda’s current leader. 

McCaul said ISIS is the “number-one threat to the homeland,” since so many foreign fighters have poured into the region with legal travel documents.

“This is a major threat to the security of American people on American soil,” he said.