US commander: Al-Qaida numbers in Afghanistan up ‘slightly’

The al-Qaida extremist group has grown barely inside Afghanistan since US forces left in late August, and the nation’s new Taliban leaders are divided over whether or not to satisfy their 2020 pledge to interrupt ties with the group, the highest US commander within the area stated Thursday.
Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of US Central Command, stated in an interview with The Associated Press that the departure of US army and intelligence property from Afghanistan has made it a lot more durable to trace al-Qaida and different extremist teams inside Afghanistan.
“We’re probably at about 1 or 2 per cent of the capabilities we once had to look into Afghanistan,” he stated, including that this makes it “very hard, not impossible” to make sure that neither al-Qaida nor the Islamic State group’s Afghanistan affiliate can pose a menace to the United States.

Speaking on the Pentagon, McKenzie stated it’s clear that al-Qaida is making an attempt to rebuild its presence inside Afghanistan, which was the bottom from which it deliberate the September 11, 2001, assaults in opposition to the United States. He stated some militants are coming into the nation via its porous borders, however it’s onerous for the US to trace numbers.
The US invasion that adopted the September 11 assaults led to a 20-year struggle that succeeded initially by eradicating the Taliban from energy however in the end failed. After President Joe Biden introduced in April that he was withdrawing fully from Afghanistan, the Taliban systematically overpowered Afghan authorities defenses and seized Kabul, the capital, in August.
McKenzie and different senior US army and nationwide safety officers had stated earlier than the US withdrawal that it will complicate efforts to maintain a lid on the al-Qaida menace, partly due to the lack of on-the-ground intelligence info and the absence of a US-friendly authorities in Kabul.
The US says it’ll depend on airstrikes from drones and different plane based mostly past Afghanistan’s borders to reply to any extremist threats in opposition to the US homeland.

McKenzie stated no such strikes have been carried out for the reason that US accomplished its withdrawal from Afghanistan on Aug. 30. He added that America’s potential to conduct such strikes relies on the supply of intelligence, overhead imagery and different info and communications, “and that architecture is still being developed right now.”
Al-Qaida is amongst quite a few extremist teams inside Afghanistan. After 2001, it misplaced most of its numbers and its potential to instantly threaten US territory, however McKenzie stated it retains “an aspirational desire” to assault the United States.
During their first interval of rule in Kabul, from 1996 to 2001, the Taliban gave haven to al-Qaida and refused Washington’s demand after 9/11 to expel the group and switch over its chief, Osama bin Laden. The Taliban and al-Qaida have maintained ties ever since.
“So we’re still trying to sort out exactly how the Taliban is going to proceed against them, and I think over the month or two it’ll become a little more apparent to us,” he stated.

Similarly, McKenzie stated it’s not but clear how strongly Taliban will go after the Islamic State group, also called ISIS, which has violently attacked the Taliban throughout the nation. The United States blamed ISIS for an August 26 suicide bombing at Kabul airport that killed 13 American service members within the remaining days of the US evacuation.
ISIS was “reinvigorated,” McKenzie stated, by the discharge of quite a few ISIS fighters from Afghan prisons in mid-August. He stated each ISIS and al-Qaida are recruiting from inside and outdoors Afghanistan.
“So certainly we should expect a resurgent ISIS. It would be very surprising if that weren’t the case,” he stated, including, “It remains to be seen that the Taliban are going to be able to take effective action against them.”
He known as al-Qaida a tougher drawback for the Taliban due to their longstanding ties.

“So I think there are internal arguments inside the Taliban about the way forward,” he stated. “What we would like to see from the Taliban would be a strong position against al-Qaida,” which they promised as a part of the February 2020 Doha settlement that dedicated the United States to completely withdrawing from Afghanistan. “But I don’t believe that’s yet been fully realized.”
McKenzie declined to offer an estimate of the variety of al-Qaida operatives inside Afghanistan. “I think it’s probably slightly increased,” he stated. “There’s a presence. We thought it was down pretty small, you know, toward the end of the conflict. I think some people have probably come back in. But it’s one of the things we look at, but I wouldn’t be confident giving you a number right now.”