While the Islamic State continues to lose ground in Iraq under an assault by Iraqi and Western forces, the global terror organization is continuing to recruit extremists to carry out its radical mission across the world, according to leading lawmakers and former U.S. officials.
ISIS has lost upwards of 50 percent of the major territories it once controlled in Iraq, but this is not preventing the group from recruiting a large cadre of followers in European countries and the United States, posing a terror risk that is not likely to abate soon, according to testimony Thursday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
With sectarian wars and other turmoil roiling the Middle East, senators warned that the United States will continue to grapple with terror attacks such as the one that took place in Ohio earlier this week.
"We're at war and sometimes we don't approach it that way," said Sen. David Perdue (R., Ga.), a member of the committee. "I believe our homeland's been invaded. When you see the rise of homegrown terrorists, the lone wolf and so forth who have been radicalized through social media and the internet, I believe our borders have been breached. I think that we are at war and that we've got to face up to that reality."
Former senior U.S. officials who testified before the committee warned that ISIS's defeat on the battlefield is not the same as the defeat of its radical ideology, which continues to inspire terrorism in Europe and America.
As a result of its defeat on the battlefield, ISIS has cut the salary it pays to fighters by 50 percent and has completely frozen death benefit payments to the families of fallen jihadists.
"But it's certainly not the end of the story," Juan Zarate, a former deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser for combating terrorism from 2005 to 2009. "We need to worry about what the next chapter looks like and what comes next."
While ISIS is losing territory, al Qaeda, once thought destroyed, has established new training camps in recent months, according to U.S. intelligence.
Additionally, ISIS will continue to fight in Syria on behalf of embattled President Bashar al-Assad and will likely see its reputation grow "through the influence of a digital diaspora" that exists on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, Zarate said.
ISIS's ability to win followers through its digital propaganda poses a significant risk in the coming years, according to Zarate and others who testified.
"They've amplified their attempts to inspire attacks," he said, citing lone wolf attacks in the United States and more sophisticated attacks in Europe. "ISIS has innovated in terms of its use of media," effectively "embedding itself with young generations."
Daniel Benjamin, a former ambassador-at-large and coordinator for counterterrorism at the State Department, noted that while "ISIS in on the defensive" regionally, it "now has the intent and capability to execute sophisticated attacks far from its territory."
"I'm afraid we will be seeing terrorist violence and jihadist violence for decades to come," Benjamin said, explaining that terror organizations such as ISIS and al Qaeda find ways to adapt and thrive when faced with Western military action.
"As it loses its grip on lands held since 2014, the operational tempo could well increase," Benjamin said.
The former U.S. official also took aim at President-elect Donald Trump, criticizing his rhetoric on the campaign trail.
"We should expect that danger [from terrorists] to grow if the tone and the approach of the new administration resembles in any way the tone and approach of the campaign," he said. "The U.S. public had already been subjected to an enormous amount of fear mongering while ISIS was on the rise in 2014."
"Threats to cut of all Muslim immigration, restore waterboarding and other forms of torture, create a national registry of Muslims, and kill the families of terrorists have all contributed to a profound unsettling of American Muslim communities," Benjamin said.