CIA: Terror threat comes from Yemen, Iraq not Afghanistan

Terror threats emanating from Somalia, Yemen, Syria, and Iraq pose a greater danger to the United States than those that might emerge from Afghanistan, the Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said yesterday.

“In terms of the homeland, the threat right now from terrorist groups, we don’t prioritize at the top of the list Afghanistan,” Haines told the annual Intelligence and National Security Summit.

“What we look at is Yemen, Somalia, Syria, and Iraq for ISIS [Daesh]. That’s where we see the greatest threat,” she added.

Haines said the intelligence community’s primary focus right now is monitoring “any possible reconstitution of terrorist organisations” in Afghanistan, acknowledging that intelligence gathering in Afghanistan has been “diminished” without US troops there and without the US-backed government in power in Kabul.

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