Throughout the past eight months, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has seeded into over a dozen Western Europe countries. Some 5,000 people have died in Boko-related violence during the past half-decade, while more than 1.5 million have been forced out of their homes according to article ISIS goes global on CNN.

Approximately 30 terrorist groups around the world have pledged allegiance to ISIS accordign to IntelCenter’s interactive world map. According to Hilary Matfess, a researcher at the Nigeria Social Violence, Boko Haram,an Islamic terrorist group from North East Nigeria with an estimated 10,000 members, is the largest group to pledge allegiance to ISIS. However, it is not certain what kinds of logistical or operational support that ISIS could provide an African affiliate. According to CNN, ISIS has some measure of command and control over these other organizations and that also means that these groups will closely align with ISIS’ goal of creating a caliphate across the Muslim world as soon as possible and to use violent tactics to do so.

On January 27, ISIS gunmen attacked the Corinthia Hotel in Tripoli, killing 10.  Last month, ISIS released a video showing members of Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority being beheaded on a Libyan beach, by members of ISIS’ Libyan branch. These attacks by other branches of ISIS, show what kind of control they possess in not only victims, but other terrorist groups.

The growth of ISIS has raised a serious question in Congress and the Obama administration. In the past month, Obama has put forward a proposal of Authorization for the Use of Military Force, targeting against ISIS. The problem is the many groups allied with ISIS, and how geographically broad the fight against ISIS and other terrorist groups should be. Congress’ court is now deciding how wide the fight against ISIS should be, with some people on the line of continuing the war against jihadist terrorist groups, and some people who would like to restrict war with one or more branches of ISIS according to CNN.