Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday that al-Qaeda terrorists may attempt to reconstruct itself in Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover of the country and now that the United States has withdrawn its troops. “I think the whole community is kind of watching to see what happens and whether or not al Qaeda has the ability to regenerate in Afghanistan,” Austin said in Kuwait City, Kuwait, reported The Associated Press. Between 1996 and 2001, the Taliban allowed al-Qaeda to operate within Afghanistan before the United States invaded and overthrew the Taliban in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Over the past two decades, al-Qaeda has been vastly diminished, as its former leader Osama bin Laden was killed in 2011, but with the Taliban takeover, questions remain about whether the group could return to prominence. “The nature of al Qaeda and ISIS-K is they will always attempt to find …