Newly masters of the United States House of Representatives, the Republicans launched a parliamentary inquiry on Friday into the chaotic troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, during which 13 American soldiers were killed in an attack.
Michael McCaul, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the lower house of Congress, announced that he had asked Secretary of State Antony Blinken for a series of documents, in particular notes of intelligence or exchanges with the Taliban.
"It is absurd and outrageous that the Biden administration has repeatedly denied our requests for scrutiny and continues to withhold information about the withdrawal," said Michael McCaul.
In case of refusal, the commission will not hesitate to go through "a binding process", he warned.
Operations carried out in chaos
Democratic President Joe Biden had implemented the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, ending America's longest war in August 2021.
But the chaos in which these operations had taken place, as well as the almost immediate return to power of the Taliban, had earned him strong criticism.
Thirteen American soldiers were killed on August 26, 2021 in a bomb attack outside Kabul airport, which left 173 dead in total.
Donald Trump had planned the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan while occupying the White House, but the Republican Party has always criticized the way his successor Joe Biden carried out the operation.
On Saturday, the US State Department said it was "ready to work with parliamentary foreign affairs committees" to help them "exercise their legitimate powers of parliamentary oversight."
The spokesperson added that the State Department held more than 150 briefings for members of Congress between the withdrawal in August 2021 and November 2022. Triggered in response to the September 11, 2001 attack in New York , the war in Afghanistan has cost the lives of more than 2,500 American soldiers and more than 3,500 from other NATO countries, according to the American army.
