US reassessing Islamic State after 'Bloody Friday'

US intelligence agencies are reassessing their approach to the Islamic State (IS) terror group as a “regional threat” following three terrorist attacks in three countries over the weekend, media reported.The US National Counter-terrorism Center is working with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to determine the extent to which the attacks were coordinated by IS terrorists, a report on Politico website said on Saturday.

“IS is very rapidly becoming a global threat and it is doing so on the cheap,” said Peter Mansoor, a retired US Army colonel who was one of the architects of the US military campaign against Al Qaeda in Iraq. “It can simply evangelise followers and get them to plan and conduct terrorist attacks on their own. This will only continue unless something is done to destroy the IS and reduce its appeal to the extremist fringe in the Islamic community.”

The attacks came just a few days after the group urged followers to “rush and go to make Ramadan a month of disasters for the infidels”, sparking fears of a spate of attacks during the Muslim holy month. They were also carried out just days before the first anniversary of IS’s declaration of a “caliphate” in the territory it controls.

Chairman of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee Ed Royce, however, did not see the attacks as coincidental.“These attacks show that the (IS) threat is spreading well beyond Iraq and Syria,” he said. “A continued haven there means more attacks across the region, Europe and even here at home,” Royce warned.