LONDON: The UK military chief has warned there is the possibility that Afghanistan could be on a path to civil war as US and coalition forces leave the country.

Britain’s Chief of the Defense Staff, Nick Carter, said it was “plausible” that the country’s state would collapse without international forces there. Afghanistan could see a situation like the country’s 1990s civil war “where you would see a culture of warlordism and you might see some of the important institutions like security forces fracturing along ethnic, or for that matter, tribal lines,” Carter said as quoted by Reuters.

He added, “If that were to happen, I guess the Taliban would control part of the country. But, of course, they would not control all of the country.” Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that after combat operations ended in 2014, around 750 British service personnel stayed in Afghanistan under NATO’s mission to train and assist the country’s security forces.