American intelligence agencies have suggested that the Al-Qaeda group (recognized as a terrorist group and banned in the Russian Federation) will be able to restore its potential for terrorist attacks on the territory of the United States in 1-2 years. This was stated on Tuesday, September 14, by the head of the US Defense Intelligence Agency, Lieutenant General Scott Berrier.
"According to the current conservative estimate, [it will take] one to two years for Al-Qaeda to build some capacity to at least threaten our homeland," Berrier was quoted as saying by The New York Times.
At this stage, the American intelligence community needs to restore its ability to collect information in Afghanistan to monitor the activity of this organization, the head of the intelligence department noted.
Earlier on Tuesday, US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines named the countries with the greatest threat of terrorism. Among them, she attributed Yemen, Somalia, Syria and Iraq. At the same time, American intelligence does not place Afghanistan as a priority, but it intends to closely monitor the possible restoration of its positions there by terrorist groups.
At the same time, Haines admitted that as a result of the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, Washington has less opportunities to collect intelligence data inside this country.
On September 13, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that American intelligence suggests that many years ago the capabilities of Al-Qaeda had degraded so much that now the group is not able to organize terrorist attacks abroad. However, the Americans will observe "extreme vigilance" regarding the restoration of the potential of the terrorist group, as well as its ability to harm other countries outside of Afghanistan.
The United States sent its troops to Afghanistan in 2001 to overthrow the Taliban regime (the Taliban movement is recognized as a terrorist and banned in the Russian Federation), under which the leadership of Al-Qaeda was based on Afghan territory.
On September 7, The Guardian newspaper reported that the United States in the process of the "war on terror", which has been going on for 20 years, killed at least 22 thousand civilians through airstrikes. The year 2003 was the deadliest in this regard.
