Former UK Commander in Afghanistan Warns of ‘Greatest Danger’ from Daesh

A former commander of the British forces in Afghanistan has warned that the UK faces the “greatest danger from terrorism” since the Daesh militant group is “at its height”.

Colonel Richard Kemp, a retired British Army officer who served as the commander of Operation Fingal in Afghanistan from July to November 2003, said in a radio interview on Sunday that the UK is now in an “extremely dangerous” situation following the drawdown of its forces from Afghanistan.

“The complete nation is now rolled over and controlled by the Taliban, which is a terrorist organisation.”@COLRICHARDKEMP, former commander of British Forces in Afghanistan, says we are now facing the greatest danger from terrorism since Islamic State at its height.@iamradzi pic.twitter.com/ztWuI2ISmM

— Times Radio (@TimesRadio) August 29, 2021
Kemp’s statement came in the wake of multiple bombings in the Afghan capital on Thursday, claimed by the Daesh militant group, which left more than 170 people dead, including 13 US service members.

The former British military commander expressed concern that the Taliban will allow and probably encourage Takfiri terrorists to “pour into the country from around the world, who plan, meet, prepare, train, organize, and carry out strikes against the West from Afghanistan”.

His remarks were echoed by Tobias Ellwood, a British conservative lawmaker, who suggested that “terrorism will raise its ugly face again”, while emphasizing that unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) strikes alone were not enough to tackle the threat of terrorism.

It comes after The Sunday Times cited an unnamed government source as saying that there was no intelligence to suggest Daesh posed a greater threat to the UK in the wake of the Taliban’s takeover in Kabul.

The report claimed that the Afghanistan branch of the Takfiri group opposed the Taliban and that there was “no evidence they have the capacity to launch attacks outside Afghanistan’s border”.

US officials have warned that there is “a specific, credible threat” of more attacks in Kabul, after a US drone strike allegedly killed two “high profile” members of the Daesh terrorist group.

Source: Press TV