Secretary of State Antony Blinken marked the second anniversary of the Taliban taking over Kabul by saying leaving Afghanistan was a hard decision but necessary decision to make. He went on to say the U.S. government was able to evacuate "virtually" everyone who wanted to leave before the U.S. military completely left but then added they had to evacuate over 900 more people afterwards.
Hundreds of American citizens, along with thousands of Afghans who worked with the U.S. during the war, were left behind due to the last-minute and chaotic evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. The historic blunder resulted in an ISIS-K attack that killed 13 U.S. services members, wounded dozens of others, and killed hundreds of Afghans.
"As you know, we brought back virtually all of the American citizens who said they wanted to depart in the course of the withdrawal and that effort continued well after and continues to this day. And I believe some 900 or so additional American citizens, who told us at one point or another that they wanted to leave, we've made sure to get home," said Blinken.
Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh was asked on Tuesday if the Department of Defense had any updates on where the U.S. equipment and weapons left behind have shown up in the region, to which she said she did not have any updates.
"We submitted our after action review that was classified but we did give that to Congress. And I think we've been pretty outspoken about our efforts in Afghanistan," she explained.
More evidence has come out in the time since August 2021 that the Biden administration ignored warnings from the military and intelligence community in the months leading up to the planned exit date, saying the previous Afghan government was in no shape to withstand the embolden Taliban.