The Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan has raised the global threat of terror to its highest point since 9/11 - and an Al Qaeda atrocity could hit US shores soon.
Tom Copeland, director of research at the conservative think tank Centennial Institute, told Fox News that the withdrawal of U.S. troops could lead to another attack on American soil.
'Having an entire country as a safe haven, will give [Al Qaeda] more physical space and more breathing space to reconstitute and go back to planning major events, so I think the U.S. withdrawal itself is a large part of that threat,' Copeland said.
Copeland claimed that an attack could come 'within the next four to five years' after Al Qaeda, the militant terrorist group founded by Osama bin Laden in 1988, takes a couple of years to reconstitute itself.
Tom Copeland, director of research at the conservative think tank Centennial Institute, said the withdrawal of U.S. troops could even lead to another attack on American soil
A Taliban fighter walks past a beauty salon with images of women defaced using spray paint in Shar-e-Naw in Kabul on Wednesday
'But it sounds like from what I've read, they're thinking they could do it in six months,' he told Fox News.
'Now, that doesn't mean we'll have an attack in six months, it does take time to plan these spectacular events.'
He added: 'I don't think it'll happen then, but I think in the next four or five years we should anticipate at least efforts by Al Qaeda and ISIS and other groups that may form in the aftermath here.'
The concerns come as the United States is set to complete its full withdrawal of troops by the end of the month.
It was set in motion by former President Donald Trump, who signed a peace agreement with the Taliban last year promising that U.S. soldiers would leave by May.
President Joe Biden has pressed that the United States will continue withdrawing troops, after going ahead with Trump's initial drawdown, despite the escalating situation facing Afghanistan.
Thousands of Americans are feared to remain trapped there, along with tens of thousands of Afghans granted visas for helping US troops stationed in the country.
Al Qaeda is expected to fully resume its operations in Afghanistan now that the Taliban has taken control of the country, Copeland told Fox News.
George W Bush first ordered troops to topple the Taliban after bin Laden used the country to plot the 9/11 terror attacks, whose 20th anniversary is now just three weeks away.
In comments to NPR, Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen said the group would 'of course' work to eradicate terror groups such as al Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
'Of course, when we say that we do not allow anyone to use the soil of Afghanistan, that means we will not allow them, that if they are intending to
