Intelligence officials in the US have said that terrorist organisation Al-Qaeda could become a threat to the US homeland within a year, using Afghanistan as a base once again.
According to a report by Bloomberg, the U.S.-designated terrorist group will likely look to reconstruct itself in Afghanistan, now that the Taliban are back in control and the United States has withdrawn all of its troops.
Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri who was rumoured to be dead was seen in a new video released by the outfit’s official media arm on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in the United States.
US-based SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks the online activity of jihadist groups, reported that al-Zawahiri spoke on a number of issues, including a raid on a Russian military base, in the new hour-long video released by al Qaeda. Rita Katz, SITE’s director, noted that al-Zawahiri made no mention of the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan.
A Hindustan Times report stated that Katz pointed out Al-Zawahiri was shown in the video even though reports last November claimed he had died. Last he appeared in a video message for the group on the 19th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks.
The United Nations claimed that most of the terror outfit Al Qaeda leadership resides in the Afghanistan and Pakistan border region, including al-Zawahiri. “One member state reports that he is probably alive but too frail to be featured in propaganda,” the UN report said.
Al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian, succeeded Osama Bin Laden as the chief of the group. He also talked about last month’s US withdrawal from Afghanistan in the new video.
“However, Zawahiri doesn’t mention Taliban’s Afghanistan victory, and his talk of the US “making its exit from Afghanistan” could have been said as early as Feb 2020 upon the Doha Agreement.
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