Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — The U.S. intelligence community has determined that Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant was building an infrastructure in the West.

Officials said ISIL was establishing sleeper cells in the European Union in what could mark a prelude to mass-casualty attacks. They said ISIL was recruiting Europeans and Americans with easy access to both continents.

“We have seen an expansion of its external terrorism ambitions,” an official said.

In a briefing on Aug. 14, representatives of the intelligence community portrayed ISIL as a confident Islamist movement determined to use its base in Iraq and Syria for attacks in the West. The intelligence community determined that ISIL recruited thousands of Westerners, many of whom were fighting in the Levant and gaining skills in intelligence, organization and combat.

“What they have is momentum,” another official said.

Officials said the intelligence community has detected massive ISIL recruitment throughout the Middle East and Europe since June 2014, when the group was believed to contain 10,000 fighters. They said ISIL’s sweep through northern Iraq sparked numerous defections from rival Islamist movements, particularly Al Qaida’s Nusra Front for the Defense of Levant.

“They’re a tough, disciplined group,” the official said. “[But] they are fighting on too many fronts and they are outnumbered.”

The intelligence briefing bolstered assessments within the EU of ISIL’s expanded presence. ISIL was believed to have begun operating in such countries as Britain, France, the Netherlands and Spain.

“If we do not act to stem the onslaught of this exceptionally dangerous terrorist movement, it will only grow stronger until it can target us on the streets of Britain,” British Prime Minister David Cameron wrote in the Telegraph daily on Aug. 17. “We already know that it has the murderous intent.”

  David Cameron, EU, Europeans, Nusra Front, U.S. intel on ISIL’s confident terror plans for West: ‘What they have is momentum’