US 'working' to prevent terror from Afghanistan

The US State Department said on Friday it was working to ensure that Afghanistan never served as a launching pad for terrorist attacks against the US or its allies in the wake of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) report about the use of Afghan soil for terrorism.

Department's Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel told a media briefing that Washington was taking "a whole-of-government approach to its Afghanistan counterterrorism efforts" in cooperation with its allies in the region.

The briefing came a day after the UN report expressed concerns about the rise of terrorist groups in Afghanistan, saying that the Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) and the Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) had more than 6,000 fighters attacking on the Pakistani soldiers and posed a threat to regional peace.

Patel said that the US was working with its partners to counteract terrorist recruitment efforts to prevent re-emergence of external threats from Afghanistan. "We're working to ensure that Afghanistan never serves as a launching pad for terrorist attacks against the United States or our allies," he said

"We are taking a whole-of-government approach to our Afghanistan counterterrorism efforts," Patel said. "We're working vigilantly to prevent the re-emergence of external threats from Afghanistan, including by working with partners to counteract terrorist recruitment efforts as well," he added.

He said that the IS-K was a transnational terrorist network that had the ambition and the capacity to launch international terrorist attacks. He stressed that the US was cooperating with partners and allies, including in the immediate region, to prevent the threat posed by those proscribed outfits.

Patel evaded a question about a media report about another assassination attempt on US citizen and human rights lawyer Gurpatwant Singh Pannun by Indian agents. "I would refer you to the Canadian government to comment on issues that are happening within their law enforcement system," he said.