MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Daesh jihadist group will likely launch terrorist attacks in Europe or the United States as retaliation to US-led coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) spokesman Col. Steve Warren said on a visit to the United Kingdom on Monday.
"We have assessed that as we continue to squeeze the enemy and as the enemy continues to feel that its back is against the wall, our assessment is that one of their responses to that is carry out a high visibility attack," Warren said as quoted by The Telegraph.
Deadly attacks claimed by Daesh in Paris and San Bernadino were not "a sign of strength," Warren posited.
"We view it as a sign that because of the pressure that has been placed on them… they are trying to either distract or prove that they are not finished yet," the OIR spokesman stressed.
Daesh is a terrorist group outlawed in the United States, Russia and many other countries; it has seized large areas in Syria and Iraq and declared a caliphate on territories under its control. The US-led coalition has been conducting an aerial campaign against Daesh terrorists since 2014.
The coalition's operations in Syria have been conducted without the approval of Damascus or the UN Security Council.
