Pompeo confirms ISIS is regaining strength

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo acknowledged Tuesday that ISIS is regaining strength in Iraq and Syria — as he insisted that the caliphate is still defeated.

“It’s complicated. There are certainly places where ISIS is more powerful today than they were three or four years ago,” the secretary told “CBS This Morning” co-host Gayle King.

“The caliphate is gone and their capacity to conduct external attacks has been made much more difficult. We’ve taken down significant risk — not all of it, but a significant amount.”

The nation’s chief diplomat then added that he and the State Department were very pleased with the work they had done.

“What we’ve always said is the caliphate’s been gone and there’s always risk that there will be a resurgence, not just from ISIS. There’s risks from al Qaeda and other radical Islamic terrorist groups.”

The startling admission comes less than a year after President Trump declared victory over the terrorist group and less than six months after American-backed forces seized ISIS’ last remaining territory in Syria.

Pompeo’s comments were in response to a question from King on the validity of a New York Times report alleging that ISIS was gathering new strength.

The paper reported that the terror organization had been conducting guerrilla attacks across Iraq and Syria, reorganizing its financial networks and finding new recruits to expand its reach from an allied-run tent camp.

In April, reports of ISIS’ potential resurgence began to circulate as the terror group started gaining momentum in the two countries.

Military brass and national security officials warned then that ISIS would regroup and remained a worldwide threat, despite the US-backed recapture of the last remaining territory held by the group.