A top Pentagon official gave a dire warning that terrorist group ISIS-K could be ready to attack the United States within the next six months to a year. Colin Kahl, the undersecretary of defense policy, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that ISIS-K and al Qaeda intent to conduct “external operations” which include against the U.S.

The Hill reports:

“We could see ISIS-K generate that capability in somewhere between six and twelve months,” Kahl said. “I think the current assessments by the intelligence community is that al Qaeda would take a year or two to reconstitute that capability.”

The timeline is slightly faster than previous estimates; late last month, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley said that al Qaeda or ISIS could reconstitute by early spring 2022.

“It’s a real possibility in the not too distant future, six, 12, 18, 24, 36 months, that kind of time frame, for reconstitution of al Qaeda or ISIS,” Milley said at the time.

Kahl noted that The Taliban is considered a top enemy of ISIS-K, and therefore are “highly motivated” to after the terrorist organization.

“It is our assessment that the Taliban and ISIS-K are mortal enemies,” Kahl said. “So the Taliban is highly motivated to go after ISIS-K. Their ability to do so, I think, is to be determined.”