Retired Gen. Frank McKenzie believes terror groups in Afghanistan have grown, making the United States less safe now than when it departed the Middle Eastern country exactly a year ago.

McKenzie, who was the commander of U.S. Central Command at the time of the withdrawal last August, told the BBC that al Qaeda and ISIS-K, the Afghanistan affiliate of the Islamic State, are “on a track where they’re going to” be “able to flourish either through complicity of the Taliban or through undergovernance of areas outside of Kabul.”