The US intelligence community has reportedly assessed that ISIS-K Afghanistan could attain the capability to attack the United States within 6 months.
Al-Qaeda’s capability might take a bit longer to return.
ISIS-K is Islamic State’s offshoot in the Central Asian country.
According to the intelligence both terrorist groups have the “intention of doing so”.
The remarks by Colin Kahl, US Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, are the latest reminder that Afghanistan could still pose serious national security concerns for the United States even after it ended its two-decade-old war in defeat in August.
The Taliban have repeatedly said that ISIS-K is no threat, but several attacks on civilians and members of the group prove otherwise, and complicate the introduction of laws and security.
The attacks include bombings targeting the minority Shi’ite sect and even an Islamic State beheading of a member of a Taliban militia force in the eastern city of Jalalabad.
In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Kahl said it was still unclear whether the Taliban has the ability to fight Islamic State effectively following the U.S. withdrawal in August. The United States fought the Taliban as well as striking groups like Islamic State and al-Qaeda.
“It is our assessment that the Taliban and ISIS-K are mortal enemies. So the Taliban is highly motivated to go after ISIS-K. Their ability to do so, I think, is to be determined,” Kahl said.
Kahl estimated Islamic State had a “cadre of a few thousand” fighters.
Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi of the new Taliban government has said the threat from Islamic State militants will be addressed. He also said Afghanistan would not become a base for attacks on other countries.
According to Kahl, al-Qaeda in Afghanistan posed a more complex problem, given its ties to the Taliban.
It was those ties that triggered the U.S. military intervention in Afghanistan in 2001 following al-Qaeda’s September 11th attacks on New York and Washington.
Kahl said it could take al-Qaeda “a year or two” to regenerate the capability to carry out attacks outside of Afghanistan against the United States.
Kahl said the goal was to disrupt those groups so that ISIS-K and al-Qaeda don’t become capable of striking the United States.
“We need to be vigilant in disrupting that,” he said.
Still, U.S. officials privately warn that identifying and disrupting groups like al Qaeda and Islamic State is extremely difficult without any troops in the country. Drones capable of striking ISIS-K and al-Qaeda targets are being flown in from the Gulf.
Finally, Kahl defended the decision to withdraw from Afghanistan.
“We are turning to the future, bolstering our capacity to engage in over-the-horizon counterterrorism operations to ensure that no threat emanating from Afghanistan can harm our homeland or our interests, even as we re-focus the Department on the challenges posed by China, Russia, and other competitors and adversaries,” Kahl said.
Lt. Gen. James Mingus was present at told the Senate Committee on Armed Services, and also defended the withdrawal and evacuation efforts made by US troops and officials.
Mingus, too warned about potential terrorist attacks on the US.
“While we reprioritize following the withdrawal in the short-term, we are actively setting the conditions to ensure we remain situationally aware and are postured to mitigate and neutralize developing terrorist threat streams,” he said.
Source: Zerohedge.com
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