Twenty years after Afghan-based al-Qaeda terrorists carried out the 9/11 attacks against the United States, there are signs that a new generation of terrorists is expecting stability in Afghanistan.
A report by the radio site "Voice of America" quoted counter-terrorism officials and political analysts who agreed that there are terrorists in other parts of the world who are already planning to return to Afghanistan.
Edmund Peyton-Brown, the UN coordinator who monitors group movements such as ISIS, al-Qaeda, and the Taliban, said in an online forum on Friday: "There is no doubt that this is being talked about."
He said there was definitely "a kind of very strong enthusiasm towards Afghanistan, and people say Afghanistan is where the US and the West were defeated".
Analysts also say that talk of a new influx of terrorists into Afghanistan is increasing.
According to the International Center for Radicalization Research, at King's College London, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in late 1979 attracted up to 20,000 foreign fighters.
So far, recent intelligence estimates by UN member states put the number of foreign fighters in Afghanistan between 8,000 and 10,000.
Several intelligence agencies warned that as early as the beginning of the year they had noticed the entry of foreign fighters into Afghanistan even before the completion of the US military withdrawal.
Photo: Reuters