{"id":8526,"date":"2022-02-20T09:20:52","date_gmt":"2022-02-20T09:20:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/?p=8526"},"modified":"2022-02-20T09:20:52","modified_gmt":"2022-02-20T09:20:52","slug":"questions-raised-over-pentagons-probe-into-kabul-airport-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/2022\/02\/questions-raised-over-pentagons-probe-into-kabul-airport-attack\/","title":{"rendered":"Questions raised over Pentagon’s probe into Kabul airport attack"},"content":{"rendered":"

MONITORING (SW) – Friends and relatives of the US troops killed in Kabul airport bombing have questioned whether Pentagon distorted investigation findings.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The attack at Hamid Karzai International Airport\u2019s Abbey Gate was not preventable, the Pentagon determined, though critics of commanders\u2019 decision-making have said the entry point was especially vulnerable and questioned why it was left open. The Americans were due to close the gate for the final time within a matter of minutes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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According to a report by the Washington Times, the release of a 2,000-page investigative report\u00a0\u2014 first obtained by The Washington Post through a Freedom of Information Act request \u2014 has revealed stark new detail about the operation, providing the fullest account yet of what happened during the 17-day sprint to exit Afghanistan after 20 years of war.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Among the documents are\u00a0sworn witness statements from senior U.S. military commanders, who told investigators that they believe administration officials lacked a sense of urgency as the likelihood of a total Taliban takeover became increasingly evident and failed to heed their warnings to prepare for an evacuation weeks before Kabul fell. In response to those assertions, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby has said there was no effort in Washington to slow-roll the final withdrawal and that the White House coordinated closely with senior defense officials.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The airlift succeeded in getting\u00a0124,000 people to safety. It has been celebrated as a historic achievement by the U.S. military, even as the full scope of the danger and misery involved have become apparent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Administration officials have\u00a0defended their decision-making, saying it was unclear the Afghan government would collapse so completely and so abruptly. Once the capital fell on Aug. 15, more than 5,000 U.S. troops were rushed to the airport to bolster a skeleton force of roughly 600 who had remained in Kabul to protect American diplomats. Senior U.S. officials then reached an uneasy arrangement with the Taliban for militant fighters to provide external security at the airport. In exchange, the U.S. military agreed to be gone no later than Aug. 31.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Killed in the attack were 11 U.S. Marines: Nikoui, a lance corporal; Lance Cpl. David Espinoza, 20; Sgt. Nicole Gee; 23; Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover, 31; Cpl. Hunter Lopez, 22; Lance Cpl. Dylan Merola, 20; Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum, 20; Cpl. Daegan Page, 23; Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo, 25; Cpl. Humberto Sanchez, 22; and Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, 20. Hospitalman Maxton Soviak, 22, a Navy corpsman deployed with the Marines, and Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss, 23, also died.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Pentagon officials estimate that 45 additional U.S. troops were wounded, with some suffering brain injuries that surfaced later. The attack, they said, was perpetrated by Islamic State-Khorasan, an affiliate of the terrorist group based in Syria and Iraq that also has been at war with the Taliban.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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President Biden has praised the service members involved and called those killed heroes, while maintaining that after 20 years and 2,461 U.S. military deaths, it was time for U.S. forces to leave Afghanistan. A deal that former president Donald Trump made with the Taliban in February 2020<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cThey were part of the bravest, most capable, and the most selfless military on the face of the Earth,\u201d Biden said of the personnel involved in the evacuation hours after the attack. \u201cAnd they were part of, simply, what I call the backbone of America. They\u2019re the spine of America, the best the country has to offer.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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On Feb. 4, U.S. military officials\u00a0announced at the Pentagon\u00a0that, after an extensive investigation, they had determined that a single suicide bomb with \u201cdisturbing lethality\u201d caused the staggering loss of life.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But according to their full report, survivors of the attack described a more complex situation. In witness statements, Marines recalled coming under and returning gunfire, sprinting to the blast site to treat survivors with tourniquets and clotting agents, and struggling to find enough refrigerated storage for all of the remains.<\/p>\n

ENDS<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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ENDS<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MONITORING (SW) – Friends and relatives of the US troops killed in Kabul airport bombing have questioned whether Pentagon distorted investigation findings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8527,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,5,8,4,6,7],"tags":[12,187,290,648,776],"class_list":["post-8526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-security_","category-politics_","category-governance","category-news_","category-afghanistan","category-headline","tag-afghanistan","tag-us","tag-biden","tag-kabul-airport","tag-pentagon"],"views":487,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}