ISIS Has Become Latest Threat to Americans Who Remain in Afghanistan

President Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN during an interview Sunday that the Islamic State (ISIS) poses a huge threat to Americans who remain in Afghanistan. “The threat is real. It is acute. It is persistent. And it is something we are focused on with every tool in our arsenal” said Sullivan.

Horrific scenes have been flooding social media and news outlets of Americans and Afghan allies desperately trying to seek refuge with American military aircraft at the Kabul airport. Efforts to evacuate thousands are continuously underway, fighting an uphill battle after President Biden’s tremendously botched troop withdrawal.

In a completely daft and empty statement, President Biden said, “we know that terrorists may seek to exploit the situation and target innocent Afghans or American troops. We’re maintaining constant vigilance to monitor and disrupt threats from any source.”

The Wall Street Journal reports defense officials have said concerns over potential ISIS attacks are among the reasons the U.S. Embassy warned Americans not to travel to Kabul’s airport, and to avoid airport gates, over the weekend.

The Wall Street Journal reports ISIS is one of several terrorist groups with a presence in Afghanistan. “Each with a different relationship with the Taliban. The Taliban had harbored al Qaeda before that group’s terrorist attacks on the U.S. in 2001, and reports have surfaced that the Taliban have freed al Qaeda fighters from prisons as they gained control of the country this month.”

Additionally, “ISIS and the Taliban have sometimes fought over control of territory in Afghanistan. The Taliban, after taking over Kabul, executed the former head of Islamic State in South Asia, who had been in a government prison” notes the WSJ.

Nearly two dozen countries have agreed to take some number of Afghan refugees and evacuees while they are being processed. On Sunday morning Biden told reporters “there’s discussions going on among us and the military about extending” the deadline for withdrawing troops. “Our hope is that we will not have to extend. But there are going to be discussions I expect about how far along we are in the process” Biden continued.