A day after U.S. forces accomplished its troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, refugees board a bus taking them to a processing center upon their arrival at Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Virginia, September 1, 2021.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
WASHINGTON — House Republicans on Friday called on the Biden administration to release information concerning the chaotic U.S. departure from Afghanistan.
In a series of letters sent to senior leadership on the departments of Defense, State, Homeland Security, and the U.S. Agency for International Development, GOP lawmakers requested all documents, communications and data related to what they called the Biden administration’s “disastrous military and diplomatic withdrawal from Afghanistan.”
“U.S. servicemen and girls lost their lives, Americans were abandoned, taxpayer dollars are unaccounted for, the Taliban gained access to military equipment, progress for Afghan women was derailed, and your entire area is now under hostile Taliban control,” wrote Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky and other key GOP representatives.
“The American people deserve answers and the Biden Administration’s ongoing obstruction of this investigation is unacceptable,” added Comer, the chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee.
The U.S. finished its withdrawal from the airport in Kabul on Aug. 31, 2021. The departure effectively ended a two-decade conflict that began shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
President Joe Biden ordered the total withdrawal of roughly 3,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan in April 2021. On the time, he asked all American service members to depart the war-weary country by Sept. 11 of that yr. He later moved the deadline as much as the top of August.
The U.S. launched its war in Afghanistan in October 2001, weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks. The Taliban on the time offered sanctuary to al-Qaeda, which planned and carried out the devastating terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
About 2,500 U.S. service members died within the conflict. It claimed the lives of greater than 100,000 Afghan troops, police personnel and civilians.
The Taliban return to power
Taliban fighters patrol in Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood in the town of Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021.
Rahmat Gul | AP
Individuals who wish to flee the country proceed to attend around Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan on August 25, 2021.
Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
In the ultimate week of the withdrawal, terrorists from the group ISIS-K killed 13 U.S. service members and dozens of Afghans in an attack outside the airport. U.S. forces launched strikes to attempt to thwart other attacks.
Biden and first lady Jill Biden traveled to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to satisfy privately with the families of the fallen U.S. service members before they watched the dignified transfer of American flag-draped caskets from a C-17 military cargo plane to a vehicle. The method takes place for each U.S. service member killed in motion.
It marked Biden’s first time attending a dignified transfer since he became president.
