WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The Daesh’s ideology will keep spreading to other parts of the world, requiring continued US military intervention once the terrorist group is destroyed in Syria and Iraq, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter told US soldiers at a briefing on Wednesday.
When the US-led military campaign ends in Syria and Iraq, there will not be many Daesh fighters left, Carter said. "But nevertheless, the ideology and some of the people will spread."
Carter explained the terror group ideology’s metastasis is already occurring in Afghanistan, where fighters have relocated or rebranded themselves as Daesh fighters, and in a number of locations in Africa.
26 July 2016, 13:33 GMT
In those areas, the United States is already working with local governments and coalition partners to plan ahead, Carter noted.
A US-led coalition of more than 60 nations has been conducting airstrikes against the Daesh in Iraq and Syria since the summer of 2014. In Syria, however, the coalition is acting without permission of the legitimate government of Syrian president Bashar Assad or the UN Security Council.
