Story highlights A Europol report projects that ISIS will stage terrorist attacks on the continent in the "near future"

Technology and social media have allowed ISIS to continue recruiting

Washington (CNN) ISIS and other terrorist groups are evolving in ways that will force the US and Europe to adapt new counterterrorism strategies, according to US lawmakers, analysts and European security officials.

A report issued Thursday by the European security agency Europol projects that as ISIS comes under increasing pressure in the Mideast, it will stage terrorist attacks on the continent in the "near future," using techniques and tactics honed in Syria and Iraq, such as car bombs and kidnappings.

That grim forecast came as US lawmakers examined ISIS' dangerous adaptability Thursday and discussed how US counterterrorism approaches should change in response. Technology and social media have allowed ISIS to continue recruiting, training and executing sophisticated external attacks, even as it has lost more than 55% of its Mideast territory since 2014.

"ISIS and al Qaeda have proved to be resilient in the face of extreme pressures," said Sen. Bob Corker, the Tennessee Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, "reinventing themselves and taking advantage of conflicts around the globe to root into local populations."

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