Work on the Defense Department’s after action report on the war in Afghanistan and the withdrawal from Kabul is finished, Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder said Aug. 31—but when the public might get to read the report remains to be seen.
Pentagon leaders sought to balance both the past and future of U.S. Special Operations Command in their speeches as Army Gen. Bryan P. Fenton succeeded Army Gen. Richard D. Clarke in a ceremony at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla. One year to the day since ...
Lt. Col. Joshua “Doc” Holaday, moderates a discussion on last year’s withdrawal from Afghanistan with Brig. Gen. Daniel A. DeVoe, commander of the 618th Air Operations Center; Col. Colin McClaskey, deputy commander of the 821st Contingency Response Group; and Col. Gregory Cyrus, commander of the 621st ...
A single suicide bomber killed 13 American service members and 170 Afghan civilians during the August 2021 evacuation from Afghanistan, contrary to the Pentagon's initial report that described a "complex" attack, according to senior military leaders following the completion of an investigation.
The Defense Department said Nov. 1 that to protect the identity of Afghans who helped U.S. and coalition forces, it has archived more than 124,000 photos and 17,000 videos from the Afghanistan War previously available to the public on its official media distribution site. “We ...
The Islamic State’s Khorasan branch, responsible for the suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members during the evacuation from Kabul, could develop the capacity to strike outside Afghanistan within “six to 12 months,” Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl warned. Testifying to the ...
Constantly shifting strategies, an Afghan military built in the “mirror image” of U.S. forces, and poor intelligence are all lessons that American military leaders can take from 20 years of the Afghanistan War, top Pentagon officials said Sept. 28. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, ...
Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall has ordered an investigation into the facts and circumstances related to the erroneous Kabul drone strike Aug. 29 that killed 10 civilians. The effort will be led by Air Force Inspector General Lt. Gen. Sami D. Said, who ...
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken appeared before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Sept. 13 and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Sept. 14, testifying for nearly a combined nine hours about the U.S.’s withdrawal from Afghanistan that ended with scenes of chaos in ...
The building shook for only an instant and the soot from the smoke was clean within 48 hours, retired Lt. Gen. David A. Deptula recalled two decades after the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon. But America’s national security priorities had been lost in the fog ...
Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken joined their counterparts in Qatar on Sept. 7 to acknowledge the transit and care of 58,000 evacuees from Afghanistan and to give a nod to the country’s strategic role in countering Iran ...
President Joe Biden spoke to the American people Aug. 31, one day after the final military flight left Kabul, to say that some 200 Americans remained in Afghanistan but that the military mission had ended and “over-the-horizon” capabilities will now fight terrorism in the country. ...