Daesh has the capability to stage a Paris-style attack in the U.S. using local cells to strike in multiple locations and inflict dozens of casualties, according to the Obama administration's top U.S. intelligence official, according to CNN.

"They do have that capacity," Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told CNN's Peter Bergen in an exclusive interviews on "AC 360" on terrorism, Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda's most virulent offshoot -- Daesh.

"That's something we worry about a lot in the United States, that they could conjure up a raid like they did in Paris or Brussels," where March attacks on a train and at an airport left 32 dead and 300 people injured, Clapper said. The November Paris attacks killed at least 130.

Daesh central would not necessarily give directions for a specific target, Clapper added. "That's apparently not exactly their modus operandi," he said. "It's more general, strategic guidance, and then let the local cell figure out how to achieve the objectives."

Obama told Bergen that "we, here in the United States, face less of a threat than Europe" from ISIS. National Security Adviser Susan Rice said "whether or not" ISIS can attack the U.S., the administration would do "our utmost to try to prevent it."

Source : MENA