People running alongside a US Air Force C-17 transport plane as it moved down a runway of Kabul international airport in Afghanistan, in August of 2021. (Photo credit: AP)
The Chairman of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Michael McCaul, on 13 January informed Secretary of State Antony Blinken of the start of an official investigation into the chaotic withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan in August of 2021.
“It is absurd and disgraceful that the Biden administration has repeatedly denied our longstanding oversight requests and continues to withhold information related to the withdrawal,” McCaul said in a statement.
“In the event of continued noncompliance, the Committee will use the authorities available to it to enforce these requests as necessary, including through a compulsory process,” the US official added.
The State Department did not respond immediately to a request for comment but told US media that it had provided more than 150 briefings to members of Congress since the withdrawal.
Washington finished its botched withdrawal from Afghanistan on 31 August 2021 after witnessing the Taliban cut through the US-trained Afghan army with little to no opposition.
Images of crowds storming parked planes, climbing atop aircraft, and even clinging to a departing US military cargo plane as it rolled down the runway of Hamid Karzai International Airport were aired around the world, sending Biden’s approval ratings plummeting.
Last year, the US Air Force cleared the crew of the C-17 cargo plane of any responsibility for taking off with desperate civilians hanging onto the wings and undercarriage.
Despite finding human body parts in the plane’s wheel well, the internal probe concluded that the aircrew acted “in compliance with applicable rules of engagement.”
US troops had earlier been cleared of responsibility for a drone strike in August of 2021 that killed an entire family in Kabul, including seven children.
The Pentagon also washed its hands of the massacre outside Kabul airport during the last days of the withdrawal, when US and NATO troops killed well over 150 Afghan civilians after an ISIS suicide bomber blew himself up.
Nearly 50,000 civilians were killed during the 20 years of occupation and war.