MI5 Chief Says Afghanistan Breeding Ground For Terrorists Again
By Donald Standeford, Correspondent - Follow -
Date Published: March 21, 2022 05:15AM UTC
Last Modified: March 21, 2022 05:15AM UTC
AFGHANISTAN - The British intelligence agency, MI5 says that Afghanistan is once again becoming a breeding ground for Islamist terrorists, and said that extremists from Britain have already tried to travel to the country.
Ken McCallum, head of the British security service says that he is concerned about "terrorist infrastructure and networks reconstituting" in the country, which is now governed by the Taliban since they took over the country in August, 2021.
McCallum told Daily Mail that the MI5 detected "beginnings of some travel attempts" by British nationals entering Afghanistan, including having "flagged two risks", one of which was the "immediate morale boost that Afghanistan would give to extremists here" he stated.
The second of which was the "the slower burn risk of terrorist groups reconstituting themselves within Afghanistan and projecting the threat back at the West including the UK. We have seen versions of both of those risks beginning to materialize".
"Clearly we have seen some people interested in traveling to Afghanistan in pursuit of some of those goals" he said. "We have seen the beginnings of some travel attempts and so with our partners we remain very vigilant".
McCallum also warned of tactic changes by terrorists, including biological attacks that could reach Britain. "Al-Qaeda, for example, determinedly engaged in research and development. This is never something which has gone away as a risk".
He mentioned that COVID-19 may have inspired terrorists to use biological or viral means of attacking targets. "It will have occurred to many people that biological or viral or their agents can be tools of significant game-changing events" he stated.
