A senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the editor of The Long War Journal has stated that ISIS remains a threat from Afghanistan.
Bill Roggio, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the editor of The Long War Journal, made these comments on Friday, January 3, during an interview with Fox News.
Bill Roggio pointed out that “the claim of ISIS’s defeat, just like the premature claim of al-Qaeda’s defeat, is inaccurate.”
He emphasized that while the group may have suffered setbacks, their presence remains active. This senior fellow also clarified that, besides Afghanistan, ISIS continues to pose a significant threat in Africa, especially in the Sahel and East Africa, as well as in Iraq and Syria.
He argued that the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria have created security vacuums in South Asia and the Middle East.
Roggio’s comments were made in relation to a recent attack in New Orleans on Wednesday, where 15 people were killed and 30 others injured. After the incident, the FBI revealed that an ISIS flag was found in the attacker’s vehicle.
It is also noteworthy that ISIS was responsible for an attack during the August 2021 evacuation operation at Kabul’s airport, which killed 13 U.S. soldiers and over 150 Afghans.
These attacks highlight the continuing global threat posed by ISIS, despite claims of its defeat in certain regions. The persistent instability in areas like Afghanistan and Syria allows extremist groups to maintain their operations and further destabilize already fragile regions. The international community must continue to address these threats to ensure greater global security.
International organizations and research foundations have revealed that more than 20 terrorist groups, including ISIS, are active in Afghanistan. However, the Taliban claim that ISIS has no presence in the country.
