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Pentagon leaders to face Afghanistan reckoning in Congress
President Joe Biden’s top military leaders are expected to face some of the most contentious hearings in memory this week over the chaotic end to the war in Afghanistan, which cost the lives of U.S. troops and civilians and left the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) back in power.
The Senate and House committees overseeing the U.S. military will hold hearings on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively, where Republicans are hoping to zero in on mistakes that Biden’s administration made toward the end of the two-decade-old war.
That will follow similar questioning two weeks ago that saw U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken staunchly defending the administration, even as he faced calls for his resignation.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is expected to praise American personnel who helped airlift 124,000 Afghans out of the country, an operation that also cost the lives of 13 U.S. troops and scores of Afghans in a suicide bombing outside the Kabul airport.
Austin is expected to “be frank about the things we could have done better,” a U.S. official told Reuters.
That will also certainly include the U.S. military’s last drone strike before withdrawing, which the Pentagon acknowledges killed 10 civilians, most of them children – and not the Daesh (ISIS-K) militants it thought it was attacking.
Ahead of the hearing, Senator James Inhofe, the Senate Armed Services Committee’s top Republican, wrote to Austin with a long list of requests for information, including on the August 26 airport bombing, equipment left behind and the administration’s future counter-terrorism plans.
Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat, said lawmakers would also press about “a lack of coordination and a real plan for how we were going to get all the Afghans who helped us out of the country.”
“I don’t know if we’ll get answers. But questions will be raised again about why we got to the point that we did in Afghanistan,” she told Reuters in a telephone interview.
Many of the hardest questions may fall to the two senior U.S. military commanders testifying: Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Marine General Frank McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command.
McKenzie called the drone strike a “tragic mistake,” one that critics say raises hard questions about America’s ability to properly identify counter-terrorism targets in Afghanistan following the U.S. withdrawal.
But McKenzie and other U.S. officials will be under pressure to defend the Biden administration’s plans to address future counter-terrorism threats from groups like al Qaeda and Islamic State by flying in drones or commandos from overseas.
Republicans have accused the Biden administration of downplaying the risks associated with that so-called “over the horizon” capability.
Separately, Milley could face intense questioning over an account in a new book alleging he bypassed civilian leaders to place secret calls to his Chinese counterpart over concerns about former President Donald Trump.
Milley’s office pushed back against the report in the book, saying the calls he made were coordinated within the Pentagon and across the U.S. government.
Senator Marco Rubio has called for his resignation. Senator Rand Paul said he should be prosecuted if the account in the book was true. But some of the greatest concern has come from lawmakers in the House, where Milley will testify on Wednesday.
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Pakistan to repatriate nearly 20,000 Afghans awaiting US resettlement
Authorities will also share verified data of the affected individuals with relevant departments to support implementation.
Pakistan will repatriate nearly 20,000 Afghan nationals currently awaiting resettlement in the United States, The Nation reported, citing official sources.
The move affects 19,973 Afghans living across Pakistan.
A federal directive will instruct provincial chief secretaries and police chiefs in Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Azad Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan, and the Islamabad Capital Territory to begin the repatriation process immediately.
Authorities will also share verified data of the affected individuals with relevant departments to support implementation.
Following the Islamic Emirate’s return to power in 2021, more than 100,000 Afghans fled to Pakistan, many of whom had worked with the US and UK governments, international organizations, or aid agencies.
Thousands have remained stranded in Pakistan for over four years while awaiting US resettlement clearance.
Prospects for relocation have dimmed amid a suspension of case processing by the US administration, according to The Nation.
Under Pakistan’s Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan (IFRP), all Afghan nationals still awaiting US relocation will now be returned to Afghanistan.
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Terrorist activities observed along Afghanistan borders, says Lavrov
Terrorist activities continue to be observed along Afghanistan borders and along the India–Pakistan–Afghanistan corridor, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview published on Monday.
Speaking to Russia-based media outlet TV BRICS, Lavrov pointed to ongoing concerns in the Middle East, including its Asian regions.
He highlighted the importance of collaboration with India at the United Nations to advance a global counter-terrorism convention.
Lavrov stated that while the draft convention has already been prepared, consensus on its adoption has not yet been reached.
Russia has repeatedly expressed concern about militant threats from Afghanistan. The Islamic Emirate, however, has dismissed the concerns saying that it will not allow Afghanistan’s soil to be used against any country.
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Afghan border minister holds phone talks with Iran’s deputy foreign minister
Noorullah Noori, Afghanistan’s Minister of Borders and Tribal Affairs, held a phone conversation with Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs, to discuss bilateral border cooperation.
According to the Iranian news agency IRNA, both sides reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening border collaboration, with a particular focus on the ongoing renovation and updating of border markers. They also agreed to accelerate joint technical and legal meetings to enhance coordination.
As part of the agreement, the next meeting of senior border officials from Afghanistan and Iran is scheduled to take place in Iran in 1405 (2026–2027).
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