U.S. intelligence agencies are seeing signs that al Qaeda militants have begun to return to Afghanistan;

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A senior official said Tuesday, after they dispersed from the country in response to the U.S. counterterrorism effort there.

U.S. intelligence agencies are already seeing activities by the terrorist group once led by Osama bin Laden to re-establish itself in Afghanistan, said CIA Deputy Director David Cohen, who agreed with the timeline of one to two years.

Both intelligence leaders spoke at a summit Tuesday in the suburbs of Washington hosted by the Intelligence and National Security Alliance and the nonprofit group AFCEA.

Top defense officials have insisted since the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan that the U.S. will have “over-the-horizon” capabilities to understand what’s going on inside Afghanistan and to take action against terrorists, which likely would include drone attacks.

Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines on Monday said the greatest threat to the U.S. from international terrorists comes from nations such as Yemen, Somalia, Syria and Iraq, with Afghanistan further down the priority list after the two-decade American troop presence ended.

SOURCE: BLOOMBERG