The director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) on Monday warned more attacks may occur following Friday's deadly assault allegedly by the Islamic State (IS) militants across the French capital.
Calling the well-coordinated attacks in Paris signs of a maturing "external operations agenda" by the extremist group IS, CIA Director John Brennan said at a forum here that he did not consider Friday's attacks "a one-off event."
"I would anticipate that this is not the only operation that ISIL has in the pipeline," said Brennan, referring to another acronym of the group. "Security intelligence services right now in Europe and other places are working feverishly to see what they can do in terms of uncovering it."
"It's not just Europe," Brennan said. "I think we in the United States also have to be quite vigilant."
Brennan's remarks came the same day as reports surfaced of a new IS video, which claimed that the group planned to "strike America at its center in Washington" and that other countries who had participated in counter-IS strikes would also be the group's targets.
A series of recent high-profile attacks across the world, which were allegedly related to the IS, had already raised concerns among U.S. security officials who worried that the IS's tactics had evolved from seizing territory to launching global attacks.
The attacks in Paris on Friday evening, which killed at least 132 people and wounded more than 350, came just one day after two suicide bombers killed at least 43 in Beirut, Lebanon. The IS had already claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Also on Oct. 31, a Russia-bound Airbus A321 crashed in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula shortly after taking off from Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh airport, killing all 224 people aboard. After the incident, an IS statement said it was responsible for the crash and the operation was retaliation for Russian airstrikes against the group in Syria.
