US general warns of Afghan civil war as Taliban make Panjshir advances

Berlin : Top US General Mark Milley on Saturday (local time) said he believed it was likely that conditions for a future "civil war" could develop in Afghanistan following the US troops' withdrawal.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Milley told Fox News during an interview at Ramstein airbase in Germany, "My military estimate is ... that the conditions are likely to develop of a civil war. I don't know if the Taliban is going to [be] able to consolidate power and establish governance." He further said that the civil war can lead to a resurgence of terror groups like Al-Qaeda, and Islamic State (ISIS), reported New York Post.

"I think there's at least a very good probability of a broader civil war and that will then, in turn, lead to conditions that could, in fact, lead to a reconstitution of Al-Qaeda or a growth of ISIS or other myriads of terrorist groups," he told Fox News.

"You could see a resurgence of terrorism coming out of that general region within 12, 24, 36 months. And we're going to monitor that," Milley continued.

He was in Germany to thank troops from the US European Command for helping to erect a massive tent city at the airport to process the thousands of Afghans who are heading to the US, reported New York Post.

"What they are doing as people come in, they are getting their names registered. They're doing the biometrics. They check their irises. They do their fingerprints. They take a full facial photo," he explained, pointing out that officials with the Department of Homeland Security , FBI, State Department, Customs and Border Protection , and United States Agency for International Development are involved.

Milley said he is "very comfortable" with the security measures taken in regards to the Afghan refugees - adding that about 30,000 individuals have already been processed.

He did note that US intelligence gathering in Afghanistan will be hindered now that the US withdrawal is complete.

"We'll have to reestablish some human intelligence networks, etc.," Milley told Fox News.

Asked about President Biden saying the US would have to use "over horizon" capabilities like airstrikes instead of boots-on-the-ground to counter-terrorism, Milley said, "it's possible."

But, he said, "We are going to have to maintain very, very intense levels of indicators and warnings and observation and ISR [Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance] over that entire region".