Afghanistan not at the top of U.S. terror threat list, national intelligence director says

Avril Haines.
(Image credit: Graeme Jennings - Pool/Getty Images)

Amid growing concern that the Taliban's governance will once again turn Afghanistan into a safe haven for terrorist groups, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said Monday that terrorist threats emanating from several other countries pose a bigger risk to the United States.

The intelligence community is, for now, prioritizing what's happening on the ground in Yemen, Somalia, Iraq, and Syria, Haines said during a virtual appearance at the Intelligence and National Security Summit in Washington. D.C. "That's where we see the greatest threat," she added, explaining that Afghanistan is further down the list.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.