A detailed assessment of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan is nearly complete and its findings are expected in the coming months, according to the Pentagon on Friday.
War Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Afghanistan Withdrawal Special Review Panel report will be made public soon, following a series of interviews with senior military and civilian leaders.
Hegseth created the special panel under the direction of President Donald Trump to investigate the August 2021 withdrawal.
The pullout of American troops from Afghanistan ended America’s longest war. The full U.S. military pullout from the country saw tens of thousands of Afghans, who feared a return of Taliban rule, desperate to flee the country. A suicide bombing at Kabul International Airport during the evacuation killed 13 American service members and more than 170 Afghan civilians.
Hegseth said that there had never been a “real deep dive” into what happened and why.
The Trump administration has blamed the deadly withdrawal on the Biden administration.
Department of War spokesman Sean Parnell, who chairs the panel, described the Biden administration’s investigation as limited in scope, further stating that his panel has reviewed more than 9 million documents throughout its investigation so far.
The Biden administration previously released a summary of classified reports and mostly blamed the pullout on Trump for failing to plan for the withdrawal he had agreed on with the Taliban.
The 20-year war in Afghanistan first began under George W. Bush and then continued under the Obama, Trump, and Biden presidencies.
Reuters contributed to this report.
