U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley said that international militant groups like al Qaeda could pose a threat from Afghanistan to the U.S. homeland and American allies in two years
President Joe Biden's decision to withdraw troops completely from Afghanistan by September has raised concerns that the country could erupt in full-scale civil war, providing al Qaeda space in which to rebuild and plan new attacks on U.S. and other targets.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley said he agreed with the timeline and said there was a medium risk at the moment. "If there was a collapse of the government, or a dissolution of the Afghan security forces, that risk would obviously increase," Milley said. A United Nations report in January said there were as many as 500 al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan and that the Taliban maintained a close relationship with the Islamist extremist group. The Taliban denies al Qaeda has a presence in Afghanistan.
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