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US think tank calls for revised counterterrorism strategy amid growing concerns
The United States Institute of Peace (USIP) on Tuesday issued a report by the Senior Study Group on Counterterrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan and highlighted the urgent need to recalibrate the US counterterrorism strategy amid growing strategic competition with China and the ongoing tensions between India and Pakistan.
The USIP report argues that counterterrorism should not be perceived as a distraction from strategic competition but rather as a crucial component in protecting the strategic agenda.
Terrorist groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan still possess the intent and growing capability to target the US and its interests, the report noted, adding that a successful terrorist attack would not only result in tragic loss of lives but also divert resources and attention from strategic competition, undermining America’s credibility and alliances.
In addition, the report stated terrorist attacks originating from the region could spark dangerous regional crises, particularly between India and Pakistan, both nuclear-armed states.
It also stated that the US withdrawal from Afghanistan has emboldened terrorist groups, providing them with opportunities to regroup and collaborate.
ISIS-K (Daesh), for instance, presents a growing threat with a reach beyond the immediate region, while the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has re-emerged as a significant regional security threat, the report read.
The USIP study group meanwhile suggested the Islamic Emirate need to be pressurized “to mitigate terrorist threats while maintaining communication channels for counterterrorism exchanges rather than adopting a cooperative approach with open-ended incentives or a pressure campaign that isolates the Taliban (IEA) entirely.”
The report also suggests increasing military and intelligence resources dedicated to counterterrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This includes improving intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities and expanding the US Department of State’s Rewards for Justice program.
The report also emphasizes the need for greater transparency in legal authorities for counterterrorism operations, ensuring actions are justified and minimizing civilian harm. This involves targeting terrorist groups planning attacks against the US and employing cyber operations to disrupt their communications.
Another suggestion was the need for enhanced counterterrorism-specific security assistance and intelligence to Pakistan.
This assistance aims to “reduce the TTP’s threat as well as to obtain Pakistani assistance on top US counterterrorism concerns, secure long-term airspace access for operations in Afghanistan, and leverage reliable access in Pakistan in the event of a terrorist attack contingency.”
The report also highlights the importance of improving preparedness for terrorist attacks in the US homeland and abroad, especially in South Asia. This includes enhancing intelligence collection and analysis, providing travel warnings, and securing emergency military operations bases in Central Asia and Pakistan.
The Embassy of Japan in Afghanistan announced on Friday that the country has allocated $19.5 million in humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan.
In a statement, the Japanese Embassy said it hopes the aid will help bring positive change to the lives of vulnerable Afghans.
According to the statement, the assistance will cover the basic humanitarian needs of vulnerable communities in Afghanistan.
The embassy added that the aid will be delivered through United Nations agencies, international organizations, and Japanese non-governmental organizations operating in Afghanistan.
Japan’s total assistance to Afghanistan since August 2021 has reached more than $549 million.
Security forces at the Islam Qala border in Herat province prevented hundreds of young Afghans from illegally entering Iran.
Officials from the 207 Al-Farooq Army Corps said that around 530 people attempted over the past two days to illegally enter Iranian territory through areas of Kohsan district in Herat, but border forces detained them and transferred them back to their original areas.
Meanwhile, officials in the local administration of Herat said that due to severe cold along the illegal migration route to Iran, three Afghan migrants have lost their lives in the Kohsan district of the province, and a shepherd has also died there for the same reason.
Mohammad Yousuf Saeedi, spokesperson for the Herat governor’s office, said that some statistics and images shared on social media regarding the incident are not reliable.
According to him, further investigations are underway to determine whether any individuals have died on the other side of the border.
President Donald Trump suspended the green card lottery program on Thursday that allowed the suspect in the Brown University and MIT shootings to come to the United States.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a post on the social platform X that, at Trump’s direction, she is ordering the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to pause the program, the Associated Press reported.
“This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,” she said of the suspect, Portuguese national Claudio Neves Valente.
Neves Valente, 48, is suspected in the shootings at Brown University that killed two students and wounded nine others, and the killing of an MIT professor. He was found dead Thursday evening from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials said.
Neves Valente had studied at Brown on a student visa beginning in 2000, according to an affidavit from a Providence police detective. In 2017, he was issued a diversity immigrant visa and months later obtained legal permanent residence status, according to the affidavit. It was not immediately clear where he was between taking a leave of absence from the school in 2001 and getting the visa in 2017.
The diversity visa program makes up to 50,000 green cards available each year by lottery to people from countries that are little represented in the U.S., many of them in Africa. The lottery was created by Congress, and the move is almost certain to invite legal challenges.
Nearly 20 million people applied for the 2025 visa lottery, with more than 131,000 selected when including spouses with the winners. After winning, they must undergo vetting to win admission to the United States. Portuguese citizens won only 38 slots.
Lottery winners are invited to apply for a green card. They are interviewed at consulates and subject to the same requirements and vetting as other green-card applicants.
Trump has long opposed the diversity visa lottery. Noem’s announcement is the latest example of using tragedy to advance immigration policy goals. After an Afghan man was identified as the gunman in a fatal attack on National Guard members in November, Trump’s administration imposed sweeping rules against immigration from Afghanistan and other counties.
While pursuing mass deportation, Trump has sought to limit or eliminate avenues to legal immigration. He has not been deterred if they are enshrined in law, like the diversity visa lottery, or the Constitution, as with a right to citizenship for anyone born on U.S. soil. The Supreme Court recently agreed to hear his challenge to birthright citizenship.
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