Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday that the State Department was putting together a review of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and would share its findings by mid-April.
“We’ve now been spending time putting all of this together to make sure that we look at some of the common lessons learned,” Blinken said.
His testimony came one day after Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Michael McCaul (R-TX) warned Blinken he would face a subpoena if the State Department failed to deliver three requested documents related to the August 2021 botched withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years of war.
Republicans, who took majority control of the House in January, held their first hearing on the pullout earlier this month, saying there has never before been a full accounting of the situation.
Thirteen U.S. service members were killed and 20 others were wounded when a member of the terrorist organization ISIS-K detonated a suicide bomb near Kabul airport amid the evacuation.
The suicide bombing along with the rapid collapse of Afghanistan’s government and military led to a refugee crisis amid the Taliban’s takeover. The U.S. left behind an estimated 78,000 Afghans who worked for the U.S.
“I am committed and determined to make that information available to Congress, and we will do that,” Blinken told the Senate panel on Wednesday. “We will do that by mid-April. So I can tell you today, you’ll have the after-action review. We will share the findings and find the appropriate mechanism to do that within the next three weeks.”
