National security adviser Jake Sullivan on Sunday said the U.S. is taking threats of a potential ISIS attack in Afghanistan “absolutely deadly seriously,” The Hill reported. 

“It is something that we are placing paramount priority on stopping or disrupting, and we will do everything that we can for as long as we are on the ground to keep that from happening. But we are taking it absolutely deadly seriously,” Sullivan told the CNN’s “State of the Union.” 

When asked how real the threat of an attack from the Islamic State is, Sullivan said it is "real, it is acute, it is persistent, and it is something that we are focused on with every tool in our arsenal.” 

“Our commanders on the ground have a wide variety of capabilities that they are using to defend the airfield against a potential terrorist attack. We are working hard with our intelligence community to try to isolate and determine where an attack might come from,” he added.