US to implement new terror warning system

WASHINGTON

The U.S. will soon institute a new terror threat warning system, authorities announced Monday. 

Department of Homeland Security chief Jeh Johnson said the new system will be announced in the coming days to reflect the "new phase" of the terror threat.

"We need to do a better job of informing the public at large what we are seeing, removing some of the mystery about the global terrorist threat, and what we are doing about it and what we are asking the public to do," he said.

The new system will replace the current system, and will include an intermediate threat-level which will have the potential to put the country on heightened alert at times even if isn’t a specific threat. 

The current system replaced a color-coded one enacted in 2011. 

Johnson's announcement came after a married couple last week opened fire at a holiday party in San Bernardino, California, killing 14 people and injuring dozens others.

Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik were killed in an exchange of fire with police several hours later. 

Officials later announced that the attacks were being investigated as terrorism.

The killings marked the deadliest mass shooting in the U.S. since the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Connecticut in 2012, in which 26 people were killed, including 20 children.