US claims 2,000 evacuated Afghans have links to terrorist groups

Joe Kent, Director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), told a congressional committee that two thousand Afghans evacuated to the United States in 2021 are believed to have links to terrorist organizations.

Kent said these individuals are part of a group of 88,000 Afghans who entered the United States under the “Operation Allies Welcome” program following the collapse of the former Afghan government. According to him, these evacuees “were not properly vetted,” and the screening process was insufficient.

He also referred to the recent attack in Washington, D.C., in which an Afghan evacuee shot two National Guard soldiers, killing one and injuring the other. Kent said the attacker had also arrived in the United States through the Afghan evacuation effort.

The NCTC director added that U.S. security agencies, including the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, are jointly investigating the two thousand Afghans identified as having suspected links to terrorist organizations. He said that in addition to Afghans, U.S. authorities have also identified 16,000 people from other countries who entered the United States despite having “possible ties” to terrorist groups.

These claims come as debates continue in Washington over how the Afghan evacuation was managed and the security implications that followed.