I'm John Bachelor with my two colleagues helping me understand most recently a report filed at the UN for the UN Security Council Committee entitled Analytical Support and Sanctions

Monitoring Team Addressing Islamic State in Iraq and Levant, that's Daesh, al-Qaeda and associated individuals, groups,

undertakings and entities.

These are transnational threats.

Syria, however, after the Civil War is not transparent.

Damascus certainly is under the attention of Tehran.

The rest of the Syrian state is unknown to me, except recently I had a report that ISIS

remains a threat in the Kurdistan region and to those Yazidis who returned to Mount Xinjar.

The UN finds ISIS a threat everywhere and Al-Qaeda a threat everywhere.

But in Syria, what is the main understanding of what is going on there? Is that Iran's influence? Is that chaos? Is it a, are we looking at apocalyptic thinking?

Yes, John, Syria is the ultimate game of throne situation with many factions and none of them good. You have the Syrian government, you have the Iraqi militias, you have the Islamic State, you have al-Qaeda's branch there and as well as a sort of a former al-Qaeda branch that is still dipped their toe in the al-Qaeda pool.

Then you have the Turkestan Workers Party who we rebranded as the Syrian,

ironically rebranded as the Syrian Democratic forces.

Then you have, you know, you have some scattered resistance or militia groups and tribes. it's a threat because nobody really controls the

situation there and it's a breeding ground and a training ground for all of

these terrorist organizations. the Iraqi militias get combat experience,

Lebanese Hezbollah, and of course the jihadist groups themselves use it for recruiting. The Islamic State remains a threat there. The

UN estimated their strength at somewhere around 4,000 to 5,000. I think that number is very low.

The Islamic State is very dangerous. The Islamic State is very dangerous.

They actually control, believe it or not, control some territory in remote areas, much

like al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula does in Yemen.

We leadership is still thought to be based there as well as in areas in Iraq.

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