Lashkar has global ambitions: US

“The example of David Headley shows al-Qaeda is not the only group with global ambitions that we have to worry about,” Daniel Benjamin, Coordinator, Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism at the State Department, said.

Growing threat

“LeT has made it clear that it is willing to undertake bold, mass-casualty operations with a target set that would please Al-Qaida planners,” Benjamin said.

Headley, at the behest of the LeT handlers based in Pakistan had carried out surveillance of possible terrorist targets in Mumbai and other places in the country.

“The group’s more recent thwarted conspiracy to attack the US embassy in Bangladesh should only deepen concern that it could indeed evolve into a global terrorist threat,” Benjamin said in his address to the Cato Institute, a Washington-based think tank.

“Very few things worry me as much as the strength and ambition of LeT, a truly malign presence in South Asia. We are working closely with allies in the region and elsewhere to reduce the threat from this very dangerous group,” he said.