Top US national security agencies have testified that the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan has contributed to violence and poor humanitarian conditions, posing a possible national security threat to the United States.
Nearly 15 months after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and the final US withdrawal from the country, the leaders of the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) presented their assessments to the House Homeland Security Committee, indicating that the Taliban poses a threat to the West, Fox News reported on Tuesday (November 15th).
“The agency remains concerned about the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray.
The intention of foreign terrorist groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS and their affiliates around the world is to carry out or inspire large-scale attacks in the United States, Wray noted.
Christine Abizaid, director of ODNI’s National Counterterrorism Center, said that after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Islamic State of Khurasan Province (ISKP) expanded its ambitions outside Afghanistan with a handful of cross-border rocket attacks against neighboring countries, including India.
“Violent extremism continues to pose a threat to the West and is contributing to worsening humanitarian conditions in regions like Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen,” Abizaid added.
Abizaid also detailed that the ISKP “now appears to be conducting operations outside Afghanistan.”
Since August 2021, this is the first time that US security agencies have warned that the Taliban and its allies could pose security threats to the West. A year and a few months after assuming power, the Taliban has not been able to win the trust of any of the countries involved in Afghanistan.
