US must not become complacent to a growing terrorism threat, a Counterterrorism Center official says
1 week, 6 days ago

US must not become complacent to a growing terrorism threat, a Counterterrorism Center official says

Associated Press  

McLEAN, Va. — Brett Holmgren got woken up early on New Year’s Day by alerts that a driver had plowed into a crowd of revelers in New Orleans. He also points to mass migration from the Russia-Ukraine war that has sent central Asians, some with ties to the Islamic State group, to countries including Turkey, Syria, Iraq and even the U.S. Around the world, officials are monitoring tensions in Africa, which Holmgren called potentially the greatest long-term threat to U.S. security given that the Islamic State group has a large footprint on the continent and is investing resources there. He says the “most potent overseas threat facing the United States” right now is the group’s Afghanistan-based affiliate, known as Islamic State-Khorasan, whose attacks include a March 2024 massacre at a Moscow theater and the August 2021 bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members and about 170 Afghans in the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. But we will continue to evaluate not just their words but also the actions that they’re undertaking.” In an indication of Syria’s continued instability, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told The Associated Press last week that the U.S. needs to keep troops there to prevent the Islamic State group from reconstituting, and intelligence officials in Syria’s new de facto government already have thwarted a plan by IS to set off a bomb at a Shiite shrine in a Damascus suburb. As of now, Holmgren said, there’s no evidence that Jabbar was communicating with any IS operatives overseas or guided by anyone, but given that he was a lone actor who was radicalized, “this symbolizes exactly the type of attack that we’ve warned about for some time.” “And I think it illustrates that while we have been quite effective as a government and across administrations at disrupting plotting overseas and going after terrorist leaders, we have a lot more work to do when it comes to countering violent extremism at home, countering violent extremist propaganda abroad,” he added.

History of this topic

US must not become complacent to a growing terrorism threat, a Counterterrorism Center official says
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1 week, 6 days ago
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