Al Qaeda is only capable of small-scale regional attacks, a US official said. (Representative)
Washington:
Al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), a globally banned terrorist group, is now likely only capable of small-scale regional attacks, a senior US counterterrorism official told lawmakers on Thursday.
AQIS was set up by al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in 2014 to expand the terror group’s influence in the region.
“In South Asia, al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) struggled to bounce back after the death of its leader, Asim Umar, in a US military raid in Afghanistan in September 2019 and failed is likely capable of only small-scale regional attacks. Christopher Miller, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, told a Senate committee.
Testifying before the Senate Committee on Internal Security and Government Affairs on the << menaces contre la patrie >> The senior US counterterrorism official said that in mid-March, AQIS published a special issue of Nawai Afghan Jihad praising the US-Taliban deal, which reflected the statements al-Qaeda leaders on the deal.
“Finally, the presence of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan has been reduced to a few dozen fighters who are mainly focused on their survival and are probably unable to carry out attacks outside the country under sustained pressure from the TC,” Miller said.
According to Miller, since the start of the global war on terrorism almost two decades ago, the United States has significantly degraded terrorist adversaries and made the United States a much harder target to hit.
“The terrorist threat facing the United States and our allies today is less acute but more diffuse – emanating from more groups in more places than in 2001,” he said.
As continued counterterrorism pressure has degraded the group’s senior leadership in Afghanistan and Pakistan, in the short term al-Qaeda is more likely to focus on building its international affiliates and supporting easily-achievable small-scale attacks in the near future. key regions such as East and West Africa, said FBI Director Christopher Wray.
“At the same time, over the past year, the propaganda of Al Qaeda leaders has sought to incite individuals to carry out their own attacks in the United States and in the West. For example, the December 2019 attack on Pensacola Naval Air Base demonstrates that groups such as al-Qaeda continue to be interested in encouraging attacks on US soil, ”he said.
