'We're in uncharted territory here' U.S. official admits ISIS' reign of terror is crushing

ISIS has recruited more than 20,000 foreign fighters.

The U.S.-led coalition against ISIS continues, now with 62 countries working to put an end to ISIS. Canada has become the latest country to shoot airstrikes against ISIS. The fight against ISIS is being described as "off the charts historically."

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - According to the Obama Administration's point man in the fight, Brett McGurk, the fact that more than 20,000 foreign fighters have joined ISIS in Syria is overwhelming.

"Just to put that into perspective: It's about twice the number that went into Afghanistan in the 1980s over a 10-year period to fight the Soviet Union, and those came really from only a handful of countries," he explained to CNN. "We're in uncharted territory here."

Although ISIS has dramatically expanded into Libya, Egypt and Yemen, the coalition still remains focused on Iraq and Syria. However, McGurk didn't deny an probable military expansion by the U.S.

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"We have a lot of tools to protect ourselves and our national security interests, some of which are military tools," he said. "Of course we apply those tools when the president determines and our chain of command makes the recommendation that that is the right thing to do."

Aside from airstrike and U.S. military action, the United States has been working hard to recruit Sunni volunteers to support "a planned Iraqi offensive attack against ISIS." Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has been making extreme progress; he has handed out more than 1,000 AK-47s to tribal fighters joining the Iraqi forces, according to CNN.

"We are helping to enable and train (them) as they begin to go on the offensive over the coming weeks and months in Anbar," McGurk said.

"They [ISIS] put out this very perverse, twisted vision, and it's very attractive to a lot of young men around the world," McGurk acknowledged, regarding ISIS' propaganda recruiting weapon. "But in fact, what the foreign fighters are finding in Syria and Iraq is that they're more likely to get killed in Iraq and Syria, and in fact, instead of getting a slave bride as ISIS leaders promise them, they're more likely to get killed by a female Peshmerga fighter in the streets of Kobani.

The foreign fighters are learning the reality of what it's like when they go to join this twisted version of a caliphate, and I think we're going to see those networks begin to dry up."

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