{"id":8960,"date":"2022-03-16T10:50:20","date_gmt":"2022-03-16T10:50:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/?p=8960"},"modified":"2022-03-16T10:50:20","modified_gmt":"2022-03-16T10:50:20","slug":"isis-attacks-are-likely-to-ramp-up-in-the-coming-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/2022\/03\/isis-attacks-are-likely-to-ramp-up-in-the-coming-months\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;ISIS attacks are likely to \u201cramp up\u201d in the coming months&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>MONITORING (SW) &#8211;\u00a0General Kenneth McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command, has said that ISIS attacks are likely to \u201cramp up\u201d in the coming months as the Taliban has struggled to limit the group since taking control of Afghanistan.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Taliban is attempting to maintain pressure on ISIS. They\u2019re finding it difficult to do so,\u201d McKenzie\u00a0told\u00a0the Senate Armed Services Committee.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--center ad-unit--inline ad-unit--inline--fulfilled ad-unit--ad-slot-rendered\" data-ad-unit=\"6423\/nr_desktop_728x90_1\">\n<div class=\"ad-unit__inner\"><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--center ad-unit--inline\">\n<div class=\"ad-unit__inner\">\n<p>He added that while spring would typically \u201cbegin the fighting season,\u201d ISIS has already launched \u201csome high-profile attacks\u201d in Afghanistan in recent months.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cIt is my expectation that ISIS attacks will ramp up in Afghanistan as we go into the summer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>He added that the Taliban is \u201cmuch less firm on the al-Qaeda issue, as far as opposing them and being able to limit them.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"inline-newsletter-nloptin-6231bc6a3a044\" class=\"inline-newsletter-subscribe\">\n<div class=\"inline-newsletter-subscribe__cta\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The comments come months after McKenzie\u00a0told the House Armed Services Committee in September that is it \u201cyet to be seen\u201d whether the U.S. can deny al-Qaeda and ISIS the ability to use Afghanistan to launch attacks, reported the NR.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe could get to that point, but I do not yet have that level of confidence,\u201d he said at the time, though\u00a0President Biden has pledged to prevent the groups from rebuilding to a point where they could attack Americans or the United States.<\/p>\n<p>During the September hearing, which came less than a month after the U.S. completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan, General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned of a \u201creal possibility\u201d that al-Qaeda or ISIS could rebuild in Afghanistan as early as spring 2022.<\/p>\n<p>Milley said at the time that the terrorist threat from Afghanistan is less than it was on 9\/11 but that \u201cthe conditions could be set for a reconstitution of al-Qaeda and\/or ISIS.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin agreed during his own testimony in September, saying \u201cthere is clearly a possibility\u201d for the terrorist groups to regenerate now that U.S. forces have left the country, which was taken over by the Taliban.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--center ad-unit--inline ad-unit--ad-slot-rendered\">\n<div class=\"ad-unit__inner\"><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cAl-Qaeda has been degraded over time,\u201d Austin said. \u201cNow, terrorist organizations seek ungoverned spaces so that they can train and equip and thrive and, and so, there is clearly a possibility that that can happen here, going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur goal is to maintain a laser-like focus on this so that it doesn\u2019t happen,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MONITORING (SW) &#8211;\u00a0General Kenneth McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command, has said that ISIS attacks are likely to \u201cramp up\u201d in the coming months as the Taliban has struggled to limit the group since taking control of Afghanistan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8961,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,18,5,8,4,6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-security_","category-peace","category-politics_","category-governance","category-news_","category-afghanistan","category-headline"],"views":382,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}