A sustained Turkish military operation against US-backed Kurdish forces in Syria would vastly increase the threat to Americans from ISIS, which remains intent on attacking the West, current and former intelligence officials tell NBCNews.
. If those fighters are set free, officials fear a replay of what happened in Iraq between 2010 and 2013, when the core group who founded ISIS were released or escaped from detention after U.S. forces left the country.
"They are absolutely still a viable external operational threat globally," the official, who chose not to be identified, said. Apart from ISIS, al Qaeda-linked groups and other extremists are active in Syria, taking advantage of the chaos of the country's civil war, according to the report.
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