US: Parliamentary inquiry launched into withdrawal from Afghanistan

Michael McCall, chairman of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, announced that he had asked Foreign Secretary Anthony Blinken for a series of documents, including intelligence memos or exchanges with the Taliban.

“The Biden administration’s repeated denials of our requests for research and continued withholding of information about the recall is ridiculous and outrageous,” said Michael McCaul. In case of refusal, the commission will not hesitate to go for “a binding process”, he warned.

Democratic President Joe Biden implemented the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, ending America’s longest war in August 2021. But the chaos that emerged from those actions, the Taliban’s return to power, earned him harsh criticism. On August 26, 2021, a bomb attack outside Kabul airport killed 13 US soldiers, taking the total to 173.

Donald Trump negotiated the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan when he occupied the White House, but Republicans have always criticized the way his successor, Joe Biden, handled the move. The US State Department did not respond to a request for comment on Friday, but US media reported that it had provided more than 150 briefings to members of Congress since the August 2021 recall.

More than 2,500 American soldiers and more than 3,500 soldiers from other NATO countries have died in the war in Afghanistan since the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York, the US military said.