New terror group could pose bigger threat to U.S. than ISIS

There's a new and more immediate terror threat to the United States, a media report and lawmakers confirmed on Sunday.

Former disciples of Osama bin Laden are operating in Syria as a terror cell U.S. officials say is called Khorasan, and they may pose more of a direct danger to the United States than the terrorist organization known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., said on "Face the Nation" Sunday that the threat of Khorasan is "more immediate" than the Islamic State, which the United States is targeting with airstrikes.

Rogers described Khorasan as "forward-deployed al Qaeda operatives who were engaging with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to develop a terror plot to bring down airplanes."

The New York Times on Sunday reported that American officials describe Khorasan "as the cell in Syria that may be the most intent on hitting the United States or its installations overseas with a terror attack."

The Times said officials say the group is comprised of al Qaeda terrorists from the Middle East, South Asia and North Africa.

The emergence of the new group underscores the difficulties the United States faces in trying to extinguish the threat of Islamic terrorism in the Middle East and the threat it poses to America.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, appearing alongside Rogers, said there are multiple Islamic terrorist groups who pose a threat, including AQAP, which operates out of Yemen and has developed a bomb that escapes the detection of manometers and has attempted to smuggle those bombs into America.

"Each one of these is capable, one day, some sooner than later, of a strike against our country," Feinstein said of the terror organizations. "So this is not a good situation."

Feinstein said the multitude of terrorist groups underscores the need for Congress to debate a broader authorization of military force in the Middle East.

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Susan Ferrechio is Chief Congressional Correspondent for the Washington Examiner.