Washington DC –
Intelligence community United States of America (USA) predict group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)-Khorasan in Afghanistan, or ISIS-K, could have the capability to strike the US in as little as six months. US estimates ISIS-K had the intention to launch such an attack.
As reported Reuters, Wednesday (27/10/2021), the statement was delivered by the Deputy Secretary of Defense for Policy, Colin Kahl, to the US Congress on Tuesday (26/10) local time.
It was a recent reminder that Afghanistan still poses a serious national security threat to the US even after the country ended its two-decade war there.
Taliban which now controls Afghanistan, is an enemy of ISIS-K. The Taliban government is known to be trying to maintain law and order after the Afghan region was hit by a series of suicide bombings and other attacks claimed by ISIS-K.
The ISIS-K attacks included bombings targeting minority Shiites and even the beheading of members of the Taliban militia in the city of Jalalabad.
Addressing the US Senate Armed Services Commission, Kahl said it was still unclear whether the Taliban had the capability to fight ISIS-K effectively after the US left Afghanistan in August. For two decades, the US has been known to fight the Taliban as well as ISIS and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.
“It is our assessment that the Taliban and ISIS-K are sworn enemies. So the Taliban are very motivated to pursue ISIS-K. Their ability to do that, I think, remains to be seen,” said Kahl.
He also estimates that ISIS-K has “several thousand cadres” of fighters in Afghanistan.
See also the video ‘Pakistans Ask the Taliban to Fight ISIS in Afghanistan’:
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