New findings American intelligence and counterterrorism officials said that Syrian Islamic extremist groups with Al Qaeda ties are trying to identify, recruit, and train American citizens and other westerners who have traveled to Syria to carry out attacks when they return home according to The New York Times.

The new findings said that efforts to train and recruit Americans are still in its early phase, but have dire consequences to the U.S. and other European states. The civil war that erupted in Syria has become a powerful magnet for westerners who support the rebels and fight the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

By far, there were at least 70 Americans who have traveled in Syria or at least have tried to get there, the intelligence and counterterrorism officials said. These numbers were just recently disclosed to the public.

James B. Comey, FBI director, said on Thursday that tracking American citizens who traveled to Syria and back had become the bureau's highest priorities, the Times said.

"We are focused on trying to figure out what our people are up to, who should be spoken to, who should be followed, who should be charged," Comey said during a press conference. "I mean, it's hard for me to characterize beyond that. It's something we are intensely focused on."

The FBI is running a round-the-clock surveillance on a small number of individuals who have traveled to Syria and returned home to the U.S. the bureau fears that they might have received extensive training and jihadist indoctrination.

"We know Al Qaeda is using Syria to identify individuals they can recruit, provide them additional indoctrination so they're further radicalized, and leverage them into future soldiers, possibly in the U.S.," a senior counterterrorism official who requested anonymity, told the Times.

Intelligence and counterterrorism officials said that their concerns about these findings were based on intelligence reports that include passenger travel records, information from human sources on Syrian grounds, intercepted e-communication, surveillance and social media postings that expressed interest in traveling into Syria.