US: Republicans launch probe into Afghan troop withdrawal

Newly minted hosts of the U.S. House of Representatives, Republicans on Friday launched a parliamentary inquiry into the chaotic 2021 withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan in which 13 U.S. soldiers were killed in the attack.

Michael McCall, chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the lower house of Congress, announced that he had requested a number of documents from Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, in particular intelligence data or exchanges with the Taliban.

“It is absurd and outrageous that the Biden administration has repeatedly denied our requests for verification and continues to withhold information about the exit,” Michael McCall said. In the event of a refusal, the commission would not hesitate to conduct a “binding process,” he warned.

Operations carried out in chaos

Democratic President Joe Biden implemented the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, ending America’s longest war in August 2021. But the chaos in which these operations took place, as well as the almost immediate return to power of the Taliban, drew sharp criticism from him.

Thirteen American soldiers were killed on August 26, 2021 in a bomb attack near Kabul Airport, killing 173 people.

Donald Trump planned the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan while occupying the White House, but the Republican Party has always criticized the way his successor Joe Biden handled the operation.

On Saturday, the US State Department said it was “ready to work with parliamentary foreign affairs committees” to help them “exercise their legitimate powers of parliamentary oversight.”

The spokesman added that the State Department held more than 150 briefings to members of Congress between the August 2021 withdrawal and November 2022. The war in Afghanistan, which began in response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack in New York, claimed the lives of more than 2,500 American soldiers and more than 3,500 from other NATO countries, according to the American army.