ISIS has Americans worried . Two-thirds of those surveyed in a recent Pew Research poll said they consider the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria to be a `` major threat '' to this country . But are such fears really justified ? Despite the impression you may have had from listening to U.S. officials in recent weeks , the answer is probably not really . For a start , U.S. officials have been inflating the numbers of Americans fighting for ISIS , which has muddied the issue for the public . U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel , for example , told CNN 's Jim Sciutto earlier this month , `` We are aware of over 100 U.S. citizens who have U.S. passports who are fighting in the Middle East with ISIL forces . '' ( ISIS is sometimes referred to as ISIL and now calls itself the Islamic State ) . But the Pentagon soon corrected Hagel 's comment , saying the 100 count is the total number of Americans fighting for any of the various groups fighting in Syria , some of which are more militant than others -- and some of which are even allied with the U.S . Indeed , Matthew Olsen , the director of the National Counterterrorism Center -- the government office tasked with assessing terrorist threats -- also confirmed that 100 is the total count of the various Americans fighting in Syria and not a count of those fighting for ISIS . Hagel 's comment is only the latest inflated claim regarding the number of Americans fighting with ISIS . Last week , the Washington Times cited anonymous official sources who said there are 300 Americans fighting with ISIS , despite the Pentagon estimating the figure to be more like a dozen . Who is the ISIS ? True , a dozen is still too many . But it is important to remember that just because these Americans are fighting with ISIS , it does n't necessarily translate into a significant threat to the American homeland . One need only look at the example of Somalia to see why . Bergen : When Americans leave for jihad . The last sizeable group of Americans who went overseas to fight with an al Qaeda-aligned group are the 29 Americans known to have traveled to fight with the Somali terrorist group Al-Shabaab after the 2006 invasion of Somalia by the Ethiopian army . However , none of those 29 subsequently planned or conducted a terrorist attack inside the United States , according to a survey of more than 240 jihadist terrorism cases since September 11 conducted by the New America Foundation . What can the U.S. do against ISIS and could it work ? Indeed , for more than a third of the American militants who fought with Al-Shabaab , going to Somalia was a one-way ticket . In 2008 , a missile strike in Somalia killed Ruben Shumpert , a resident of Seattle . A year later , Burhan Hassan , a 17-year-old from Minneapolis , was killed in the Somali capital , Mogadishu . Abdirizak Bihi , Hassan 's uncle , reportedly said at the time , `` We believe he was killed because he would have been a key person in the investigation into the recruitment ( of young Somali men ) here in Minneapolis . '' Al-Shabaab militants also are said to have killed Alabama native Omar Hammami , who joined the group in 2006 and took a high-profile position in its media operations before his death last year . At least two Americans fighting for Al-Shabaab died while conducting suicide attacks in Somalia . Shirwa Ahmed , a 26-year-old from Minnesota , became the first known American to conduct a suicide bombing for an al Qaeda-associated group when he drove a car packed with bombs into a government compound on October 28 , 2008 . In 2011 , meanwhile , the FBI confirmed that Farah Mohamed Beledi , a 27-year-old Minnesota man who was born in Somalia and moved to the United States at age 12 , was killed while attempting to detonate a suicide bomb in Somalia . Bergen : An American 's gateway to jihad . In addition to the American militants who died in Somalia , six were arrested , four when they returned to the West and two in East Africa . Kamal Said Hassan , a 28-year-old Minneapolis man who traveled to Somalia and attended an Al-Shabaab training camp before returning to the United States , was arrested and in 2009 pleaded guilty to supporting Al-Shabaab . In another case , Mahamud Said Omar , an American resident who helped organize Al-Shabaab 's recruitment pipeline and visited a training camp , was arrested in the Netherlands in 2009 . Omar was extradited to the United States and in 2012 was convicted on terrorism charges . Of course , the fact that 13 of the 29 American militants who fought in Somalia remain at large is a reminder that the CIA and FBI also need to pay attention to the potential threat posed by American foreign fighters in Syria . But this is no reason for U.S. officials to overhype the threat posed by ISIS to the United States . Yes , Americans should always be mindful of the threats posed by extremists . But as the case of U.S. citizens in Somalia suggests , Syria could very well end up being a graveyard for Americans fighting there rather than a launch pad for attacks on the United States .
100 of Americans say ISIS `` major threat '' to U.S. Somalia officials have inflated numbers of Americans fighting for ISIS , says Peter Bergen . Claims that over Two-thirds U.S. citizens fighting with ISIS are probably overestimate . Syria example suggests those fighting in Somalia wo n't pose U.S. threat , Bergen says .