Will Returning Syria Fighters Strike the United States?

David Sterman and Peter Bergan wrote for CNN about rising concerns of what returning "foreign fighters" will do in their home countries:

The ISIS attacks in Brussels and Paris have raised concerns about the threat posed by returning Western "foreign fighters" from the conflicts in Syria and Iraq who have been trained by ISIS or other jihadist groups there.

One of the Brussels bombers, Ibrahim El Bakraoui, had been detained in Turkey and sent back to Belgium. He was believed to be planning to join ISIS in Syria.

Seven of the attackers in Paris were European nationals who had trained with ISIS in Syria.

Yet in the United States, the threat from returning foreign fighters remains quite limited. According to FBI Director James Comey, 250 Americans have gone or attempted to go to Syria. This figure is far fewer than the estimated 6,900 who have traveled or attempted to travel to Syria from Western nations as a whole—mostly from Europe.

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