Department Of Defense Renews Investigation Into Botched Afghanistan Withdrawal
May 20, 2025|2 min read
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On Tuesday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced the renewal of the investigation into the deadly suicide attack that took place on 26 August 2021 during the Afghanistan withdrawal, resulting in the deaths of 13 service members and nearly 169 Afghan civilians outside Kabul International Airport’s Abbey Gate.
Now, the Secretary of Defense is hoping to assuage the public’s concerns that emerged in the wake of the attack and has announced the formation of a Special Afghanistan Withdrawal Review Panel. Both Sean Parnell, a veteran of Afghanistan, and Jerry Dunleavy, an investigative journalist who assisted the House Foreign Affairs Committee with their initial review, have been announced as members of the inestigative body.
“The Department of Defense has an obligation, both to the American people and to the warfighters who sacrificed their youth in Afghanistan, to get to the facts. This remains an important step toward regaining faith and trust with the American people and all those who wear the uniform and is prudent based on the number of casualties and equipment lost during the execution of this withdrawal operation,” Secretary Hegseth said in the memorandum.
“President Trump promised accountability for what transpired during that military withdrawal, and I am committed to delivering on that promise. We have an obligation to the American people and to the warfighters who fought in Afghanistan to get the truth – and we will,” the Secretary said in a subsequent press release.
An initial investigation would determine that Abdul Rahman al-Logari, a militant terrorist with the Khorasan Province branch of the Islamic State (ISIS-K), wore and detonated an explosive belt. In response to the attack, the United States conducted two drone strikes on 27 and 29 August. The strike on the 27th is believed to have neutralized three ISIS-K militants but the strike on 29 August was misidentified and struck a truck carrying an Afghan aid worker and seven children. Ten civilians died in the second retaliatory strike.
In April 2024, contradictory reports regarding the nature of the attack emerged with an investigative report by CNN uncovering footage from a Marine’s GoPro camera that indicated that a substantial amount of gunfire, possibly from an ambush, coincided with the attack. The Pentagon has maintained that all casualties were the result of the bombing and that any gunfire that took place was minimal.
