UK Security Service warns of terror threat rising since Afghan exit

The risk of another 9/11-style terrorist attack has been heightened following the West's withdrawal from Afghanistan, the head of MI5 Security Service, the UK's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency, Ken McCallum, has warned, Report informs via The Times.

Ken McCallum, director-general of the Security Service, said there was "no doubt" that events in the country will have "heartened and emboldened" extremists.

McCallum said that in addition to giving a "morale boost" to potential terrorists in Britain or elsewhere, there was a concern that they would be able to regroup and plot sophisticated attacks.

US President George W. Bush, who accused the al-Qaeda terrorist organization of attacking the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, demanded that the Taliban extradite the leader of the terrorist group. Then, the United States deployed its troops in Afghanistan, ending the Taliban's rule, and 90 percent of the Taliban followers left the country. Twenty years later, in August 2021, the Taliban regained power in Afghanistan, and the US military withdrew.