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Updated September 15th, 2021 at 10:30 IST

Al-Qaeda could rebuild in Afghanistan in one or two years, warns US Intelligence

Timeline for renewed security threat emerging out of Afghanistan might be shrinking, director of Defense Intelligence Agency Lt. Gen.Berrier warned.

Reported by: Zaini Majeed
Afghanistan
IMAGE: AP/US Defense Intelligence Agency | Image:self
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Globally designated terrorist outfit Al-Qaeda could rebuild within a year or two in Afghanistan, turning into a major threat to American soil as the Islamist terrorists have already started to return to Kabul after the Taliban takeover, top Intelligence officials in the US warned Tuesday. "The current assessment probably conservatively is one to two years for Al-Qaeda to build some capability to at least threaten the homeland," Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency Lt. Gen. Scott D. Berrier said during yesterday's National Intelligence and Security Summit. 

As Kabul has turned into a safe harbour for the terrorist group after the US withdrawal, the timeline for the renewed security threat might be shrinking, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency and United States military’s Lt. Gen. Scott D. Berrier warned. He reiterated that "the current assessment" of exactly when Al-Qaeda may be able "to build some capacity to at least threaten" the United States is "conservatively" just one year or maybe two, echoing similar nature of the warning that was fired before the withdrawal as the Biden administration announced ending the 20-year war in Afghanistan. Giving the estimated timeframe, as he spoke at the Intelligence & National Security Summit, Berrier indicated that the Taliban maintains ties to Al-Qaeda, and the terrorist organisation could soon spill terror and security situations erupting out of the Afghan soil. 

It is to be noted that the Lieutenant General of the Afghanistan Army, Sami Sadat had warned ahead of the Ashraf Ghani government’s collapse and Taliban’s seizure of the key provincial borders that the “Al-Qaeda terrorists” had joined Taliban men that were fighting on the ground. In his televised remarks, Sadat had said that he had “never seen so many Al-Qaeda members in the front lines fighting shoulder to shoulder with the Taliban”. 

Al-Qaeda has a 'closer alliance' with Taliban

While DIA official Lt. Gen. Scott D. Berrier stressed that both Al-Qaeda and ISIS-K have returned to Afghanistan, it is Al-Qaeda that has a closer alliance with the Taliban. Deputy Director of the CIA David S. Cohen, also present at the National Intelligence and Security Summit, said that the Defense Intelligence Agency is watching "some potential movement of al Qaeda to Afghanistan" and while the threat looms, it is uncertain for CIA to assess exact timeline for when either Al-Qaeda or ISIS-K would "have the capability to go to strike the homeland”. The two officials stressed that the US Army will develop "over the horizon" methods of collecting intelligence. 

Meanwhile, Director of United States National Intelligence Avril Haines in her statement via videoconferencing at the National Security Summit admitted that US President Joe Biden’s abrupt military withdrawal "dismantled the CIA intelligence network that the United States built up over the last 20 years." After America ended the 2-decade war in Afghanistan as the final military plane pulled out of Kabul, the extensive intelligence and covert action network created over the last 20 years in retaliation to global terrorism since 9/11 have all diminished, she acknowledged. 

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Published September 15th, 2021 at 10:30 IST

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