“Current information suggests that al-Qaeda and affiliated organizations continue to plan terrorist attacks both in the region and beyond, and that they may focus efforts to conduct attacks in the period between now and the end of August,” the department said on Friday.

The warning comes following reports of CIA operatives preparing militants in Jordan for launching an offensive in Syria.

The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Representative C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland, supported the department’s decision to go public with its concerns.

“We got intelligence, and not just the normal chitchat, that there could be an attack on Americans or our allies,” Ruppersberger said.

“Putting it out there, that also gives notice to the people that are planning it: We know something’s out there,” he added.

Concerns about spread of terrorist attacks by extremists were already high in the region due to massive support by the US and its allies to different groups of militants pouring to Syria to topple the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

On June 28 The Wall Street Journal reported that the US intelligence agency will continue mobilizing arms, including anti-tank missiles, in Jordan for three weeks to lay the ground for an August assault on Syria which has gripped the country since March 2011.

The war in Syria started in March 2011, when pro-reform protests turned into a massive insurgency following the intervention of Western and regional states.

The unrest, which took in terrorist groups from across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, has transpired as one of the bloodiest conflicts in recent history.

As the foreign-backed insurgency in Syria continues without an end in sight, the US government has boosted its political and military support to Takfiri extremists.

Washington has remained indifferent about warnings by Russia and other world powers about the consequences of arming militant groups.

SHI/SHI