'Apocalyptic' ISIS "beyond anything we've seen," admits Pentagon

Both the Pentagon and the United States military have underscored the need to curb the expansion of the militant group, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) that has wreaked havoc in Iraq and Syria.

While the Pentagon warned on Thursday that the group was an "apocalyptic" organization that posed an "imminent threat," the U.S. military said that it was sufficient for Washington to "contain" the group that recently beheaded an American journalist, reported The Guardian.

Referring to the beheading of James Foley, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said during a press briefing at Pentagon that if the group is capable of exhibiting such barbarity then it poses "imminent threat" to every American interest in Iraq or anywhere else in the world. He added that the nation must prepare for everything because the group is sophisticated, strategic, well funded and militarily adept and is "beyond anything that they have seen."

Army General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on the other hand remarked that the ISIS would have to be defeated eventually but the U.S. should now focus on building allies in the region to counter the group's activities.

Dempsey and Hagel made the statement a day after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that the group must be destroyed and President Barack Obama urged the Middle East to curb the expansion of the group that is spreading like cancer.

Meanwhile, six new sir strikes by the U.S. hit the group's positions near the Mosul Dam that was reclaimed from the ISIS three days ago. About two-thirds of the 90 U.S. air strikes since August 8 have taken place near the strategic dam.