Top military leaders testify on Afghanistan for first time since withdrawal

The public portion of the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the US withdrawal from Afghanistan has wrapped. Today’s hearing marked the first time President Biden’s top military leaders testified publicly since the full withdrawal took place.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley and Gen. Frank McKenzie, leader of US Central Command, were grilled on the chaotic withdrawal. If you’re just reading in now, here are some key moments:

Read more about today’s hearing here.

Asked what concrete steps the US can take to influence the future of Afghan women and girl’s that honors their human rights and freedoms, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin acknowledged that the Taliban’s track record is “absolutely horrible.”

“We will have to continue to — we will have to work to use economic levers and also international pressure to hold the Taliban accountable for some of the things that they said they were going to do. Again, I think this will have to be an international effort to maintain pressure on Taliban,” Austin said in response to a question from Sen. Mazie Hirono, a Democrat from Hawaii.

Some more context: The Taliban — who ruled over Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001, but were forced from power after a US-led invasion — have historically treated women as second-class citizens, subjecting them to violence, forced marriages and a near-invisible presence in the country.

After they reclaimed the capital, Kabul, in August, the Taliban’s leadership claimed that it would not enforce such draconian conditions this time in power.

But those promises have not materialized. The absence any female representatives from their newly-formed interim government and an almost overnight disappearance of women from the country’s streets has led to major worries about what will happen next for half of its population.

Militants have in some instances ordered women to leave their workplaces, and when a group of women protested the announcement of the all-male government in Kabul, Taliban fighters beat them with whips and sticks.

On Monday, the school’s new Taliban-appointed chancellor announced women will no longer be allowed to attend classes or work at Kabul University “until an Islamic environment is created.”

CNN’s Karen Smith and Tara John contributed reporting to this post.

Whether or not the non-combatant evacuation, or NEO, of American citizens and Afghans should have been ordered sooner is an “open question that needs further exploration,” Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a Senate hearing about the Afghanistan withdrawal on Tuesday.

Milley said the NEO was not ordered until Aug. 14. The State Department is responsible for making the order to start the non-combatant evacuation, and Amb. Ross Wilson, the top US diplomat in Afghanistan at the time of the withdrawal, did not order the NEO until Aug. 14, Milley said, but Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had already started “pushing for forces and orders,” on Aug. 12.

“The secretary in fact on the 12th of August started pushing for forces and orders, and on the 14th Amb. Wilson called the NEO. Should that have been called earlier? I think that’s an open question that needs further exploration based on a series of meetings,” Milley said.

Milley stressed the 2,500 troops that were withdrawn under Gen. Scott Miller, the top general in Afghanistan through the end of the US military retrograde in mid-July, were not troops that could have conducted the NEO in the first place. They were advisers, he said.

“The NEO troops are Marine Expeditionary Units, Special Purpose MAGTAF and elements of the 82nd Airborne Division, that’s what you need in order to do the NEO. Those are the plans that I believe the secretary is referring to that were developed early on,” Milley said.

Gen. Frank McKenzie, the top general of US Central Command which oversees the Middle East region, had plans for the NEO, and those plans were executed after Wilson called for the evacuation on Aug. 14. 

“There was a plan for a rapid collapse, and that was the NEO plan that Gen. McKenzie had come up with, and that was executed, that’s why those 6,000 troops could deploy as rapidly as they did. That’s why all those aircrafts showed up, that wasn’t done without planning, that was done with planning,” Milley said. 

Milley said this reinforces his point that the NEO mission was a logistical success, but there was a strategic failure. 

“Strategically, strategically the war is lost, the enemy is in Kabul. So you have a strategic failure while you simultaneously have an operational and tactical success by the soldiers on the ground. So I think we’re conflating some things,” he said.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki would not say which military advisers suggested a full US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, attempting to clarify that President Biden didn’t go against advice from advisers by ordering a full US withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Psaki’s comments come after comments the leader of US Central Command, Gen. Frank McKenzie, made during congressional testimony on Tuesday discussing the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

McKenzie said that he recommended the US keep 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, a recommendation Gen. Mark Milley said he agreed with. The testimony appears to contradict President Joe Biden’s claim to the contrary during an interview last month.

“I also had a view that the withdrawal of those forces would lead inevitably to the collapse of the Afghan military forces, and eventually the Afghan government,” McKenzie said.

Psaki said there was a “range of viewpoints” presented to the President from his military advisers on how to proceed in Afghanistan, but even those advisers who did suggest keeping 2,500 troops in Afghanistan in the short-term recognized that would not have been a long-term strategy as keeping troops would have let to increased conflict in the country.

“I would note today in the testimony that was given by Secretary Austin, by General Milley, they made clear, Secretary Austin specifically said, if you stay there at a force posture of 2,500, certainly you’d be in a fight with the Taliban, and you’d have to reinforce,” Psaki said at Tuesday’s White House press briefing. 

“It was also clear, and clear to him, that that would not be a long standing recommendation, that there would need to be an escalation, an increase in troop numbers, it would also need, it would also mean war with the Taliban and it would also mean the potential loss of casualties. The President was just not willing to make that decision. He didn’t think it was in our, the interest of the American people or the interests of, of our troops,” she continued.

Pressed on who specifically suggested that a full withdrawal was the right move, Pskai said those were private conversations and would not name any military leader who advised the President towards a full withdrawal.

“Look, I’m not going to get into specific details of who recommended what, but I can, I would reiterate a little bit of what I conveyed before, which is that there were recommendations made by a range of his advisors, something he welcomed, something he asked them to come to him clear eyed about to give him candid advice,” she said, again reiterating that those recommendations would not be sustainable long term troop numbers.

“There was no one who said, five years from now we could have 2,500 troops and that would be sustainable. And I think that’s important for people to know and to understand,” Psaki said.

The press secretary said the conversation at the time was part of a risk assessment, but ultimately it is up to the President to make strategic decisions and Biden decided it was time to end America’s 20-year war in Afghanistan.

“These conversations are about a range of options, about what the, the risk assessments are about every decision. And of course, there are individuals who come forward with a range of recommendations on what the right path forward looks like. I’m not going to detail those from here, they’re private conversations and advice to the President of the United States. Ultimately, regardless of the advice, it’s his decision. He’s the Commander in Chief,” Psaki said.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was asked by Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat from Virginia, what his “best estimate” is on how many Americans remain in Afghanistan.

Austin said, “according to [the State Department], there are currently fewer than 100 American citizens who want to depart and are ready to leave.”

He added that 21 American citizens were evacuated today, along with their family members, and are continuing to work on getting people out. Austin did not provide details or the circumstances of how the 21 Americans got out.

Austin could not provide an exact number of how many Americans are left in Afghanistan saying the number “fluctuates daily.”

“The numbers fluctuate daily, and because more people come to light as time, time goes by and they see opportunities to safely leave, and so this has been a dynamic process, but again we will stay focused on this,” he said.

State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Jalina Porter told reporters the State Department was not in a position to confirm additional departures due to “security reasons” and referred back to the Department of Defense.

CNN’s Ellie Kaufman, Christian Sierra and Jennifer Hansler contributed reporting to this post.

The Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the US withdrawal from Afghanistan has resumed after a lunch break.

President Biden’s top military leaders will now face a second round of questioning.

The witnesses are:

Today’s hearing marks the first time the military leaders are testifying publicly since the full withdrawal took place.

Read more about today’s hearing here.

Gen. Frank McKenzie, the leader of US Central Command, and Gen. Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, said they predict the relationship between Pakistan and the Taliban will become more complicated now that the latter is in control of Afghanistan.

“I believe Pakistan’s relationship with the Taliban is going to become significantly more complicated as a result of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan,” McKenzie told lawmakers on the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday.

McKenzie said there are ongoing deliberations with Pakistan over the use of a vital air corridor to access Afghanistan.

“Over the last 20 years we’ve been able to use what we call the air boulevard to go in over western Pakistan and that’s become something that’s vital to us, as well as certain landlines of communication, and we’ll be working with the Pakistanis in the days and weeks ahead to look at what that relationship is going to look like in the future,” he said.

Both Milley and McKenzie declined to discuss whether they have concerns about Pakistan’s nuclear weapons and the potential that they could fall into the hands of terrorists, noting there were a series of things they could talk about in Tuesday afternoon’s closed session. 

McKenzie said it was “yet to be seen” whether terrorist groups like al Qaeda and ISIS will use Afghanistan as a launchpad.

“We’re still seeing how al Qaeda and ISIS are configuring themselves against the Taliban, we’re still seeing what the Taliban is going to do, so I think it’s, I would not say I’m confident that that’s going to be on the ground yet, we could get to that point but I do not yet have that level of confidence,” he said.

Gen. Kenneth Frank McKenzie, commander of US Central Command, said he takes full responsibility for the drone strike that killed 10 Afghan civilians in August.

“The matter is under investigation, but what I can tell you broadly, and to restate some things that I’ve said earlier, I am responsible for that. It happened in my area of responsibility, so I’m the responsible officer for that strike,” McKenzie said during a Senate hearing on the Afghanistan withdrawal.  

McKenzie previously called the strike, which killed seven children, a “mistake.”

“Moreover, I was under no pressure and no one in my chain of command below me was under any pressure to take that strike. We acted based on the intelligence read that we saw on ground. We acted several times on intelligence that we saw, and we were successful in other occasions in preventing attacks,” he told lawmakers.

“This time, tragically, we were wrong, and you’re right to note that as we go forward and our ability to create what we call the ecosystem that allows you to see what’s going on the ground and put all of that together, it’s going to get a lot harder to do that, particularly in places like Afghanistan, but I can share a little more with you later,” he said.

A closed session will follow today’s open hearing.

Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, US CENTCOM commander, said it is “yet to be seen” if the US can deny organizations like al Qaeda and ISIS the ability to use Afghanistan as a launchpad for terrorist activity.

“I think we’re still seeing how al Qaeda and ISIS are configuring themselves against the Taliban. We’re still seeing whether the Taliban is going to do, so I think — I would not say I’m confident that that’s going to be on the ground yet,” McKenzie said.

“We could get to that point but I do not have that level of confidence,” he added.

Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he spoke with several journalists including Bob Woodward, Carol Leonnig, Philip Rucker and Michael Bender for interviews that were included in different books about the Trump administration when asked by Sen. Marsha Blackburn. Milley also said he had not read any of the books.

Blackburn, a Republican from Tennessee, asked Milley if he felt he was “accurately represented” in the books, and Milley responded, “I haven’t read any of the books.”

“I’ve seen press reporting of it. I haven’t read the books,” Milley said.

Blackburn asked Milley to read the books and “let us know if you are accurately presented and portrayed.” Milley said he would read them.

Sen. Kevin Cramer, a Republican from North Dakota, asked Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin about the Aug. 29 drone strike by the US military in Afghanistan that killed multiple civilians.

Austin said he has not yet reached out to the aircrew that was operating that aircraft but that the incident is under a “three-star review” by the military.

“I’ve directed a three-star review of this incident, Gen. Mckenzie did an initial investigation, and I directed a three-star review and so I won’t make any comments,” he said.

Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the non-combatant evacuation mission at the end of August that resulted in over 100,000 people being evacuated from Afghanistan after the capital city of Kabul fell to the Taliban was a “logistical success, but a strategic failure.”

Milley stressed the evacuation of US citizens, other country’s citizens and Afghans from Kabul last month was a “non-combatant evacuation (NEO),” while the actual process of withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan occurred earlier under the direction of Gen. Austin Miller, the former top general in Afghanistan.

Milley called the withdrawal of US troops under Miller’s direction a “retrograde,” and said it was completed by “mid-July.” The NEO was conducted in August after Kabul fell to the Taliban.

“There’s two operations. There’s the retrograde, which Miller was in charge of, and there’s the NEO, which CENTCOM was in charge of. The retrograde was executed and ended by mid-July with a residual force to defend the embassy, the NEO,” Milley said.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley and United States Central Command head Gen. Frank McKenzie said their assessments that the US should maintain 2,500 troops in Afghanistan were their personal opinions, telling lawmakers they would not discuss their specific recommendations to President Biden. 

Earlier comments from Milley and McKenzie seemed to contradict remarks Biden made in an interview in mid-August, where he disputed that military advisers told him that he should keep troops in Afghanistan after the withdrawal deadline. 

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin also told lawmakers that he knows Biden “to be an honest and forthright man.”

“Their input was received by the President and considered by the President, for sure. In terms of what they specifically recommended … they’re not going to provide what they recommended in confidence,” Austin said.

Milley told lawmakers that his assessment in fall 2020, which “remained consistent throughout,” was that the US should “keep a steady state” of 2,500 troops.

“I don’t discuss exactly what my conversations are with the sitting President in the Oval Office, but I can tell you what my personal opinion was, and I’m always candid,” he said.

Milley added that at a meeting of top military officials on Aug. 25, they “made a unanimous recommendation that we end the military mission and transition to a diplomatic mission.”

Sen. Mike Rounds, a Republican from South Dakota, asked Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin about “potential scenarios” that were discussed regarding what would happen in Afghanistan after the US pulled out. He said they discussed “a range of possibilities.” 

“The entire collapse of the Afghan government was clearly one of the things that, if you look at the intel estimates and some of the estimates that others had made, that could happen,” he said.

He added that they did not plan against the possibility of that collapse happening as quickly as it did.

“We certainly did not plan against a collapse of the government in 11 days,” Austin said.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley submitted two unclassified memos to the Senate Armed Services Committee regarding phone calls he had with his Chinese counterpart during the final months of the Trump administration.

Here’s what the memos outline:

“I explained to her that the President is the sole nuclear launch and he doesn’t launch them alone, and that I am not qualified to determine the mental health of the President of the United States,” Milley said in his opening statement to the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Tuesday.

“At no time was I attempting to change or influence the process, usurp authority, or insert myself into the chain of command, but I am expected to give my advice and ensure the President is fully informed,” Milley said in the memo. 

The memo with the timeline of calls between Chinese officials and DoD officials also provides relevant statutory guidance about the Chairman’s role in advising the President of the United States.

“Communication between the President or the Secretary (or their duly deputized alternates or successors) and the CCDRs ‘will be transmitted through the Chairman unless otherwise directed,’” the memo states.

See the memos submitted by Milley here and here.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley told Republican Sen. Tom Cotton “there’s no way” he would resign after US withdrawal from Afghanistan led to chaos and his recommendations to President Biden on the matter were rejected.

“As a senior military officer, resigning is a really serious thing. It’s a political act if I’m resigning in protest. My job is to provide advice,” he told Congress. “The President doesn’t have to agree with that advice. He doesn’t have to make those decisions just because we’re generals. It would be an incredible act of political defiance for a commissioned officer to just resign because my advice is not taken.”

Additionally, Milley said he feels a sense of duty toward his troops.

“In addition to that, just from a personal standpoint, you know, my dad didn’t get a choice to resign at Iwo Jima, and those kids there at Abbey Gate, they don’t get a choice to resign. And I’m not gonna turn my back on them…They can’t resign, so I’m not going to resign. There’s no way.”

“If the orders are illegal, we’re in a different place. But if the orders are legal from civilian authority, I intend to carry them out,” he added.

Top military commanders said the Doha Agreement between the US and Taliban inked under the Trump administration negatively impacted the morale and performance of the Afghan security forces.

US officials said the quick collapse under the advance of the Taliban came as a surprise. 

However, CENTCOM Commander Gen. Frank McKenzie told lawmakers Tuesday, “it’s my judgement that the Doha Agreement did negatively affect the performance of the Afghan forces in particular by some of the actions the government of Afghanistan was required to take as part of that agreement.”

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley said it was his assessment that the Doha deal “did affect the morale of the Afghan security forces.”

McKenzie also indicated the removal of US military contractors who supported the Afghan Air Force was also detrimental.

“We had plans in place to try to conduct those operations from over the horizon, they were not as effective as having contractors on the ground, on site, with the aircraft,” he said.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said “we absolutely missed” the quick collapse of the Afghan military and government.

“We absolutely missed the rapid 11-day collapse of the Afghan military and the collapse of their government. I think there was a lot of intelligence that clearly indicated that after we withdrew, that it was a likely outcome of a collapse of the military, a collapse of the government,” Milley said in response to a question from Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat from New Hampshire, at a Senate hearing on the Afghanistan withdrawal.

“Most of those intelligence assessments indicated that would occur late fall, perhaps early winter, Kabul might hold till next spring,” Milley continued.

“While we were there, though, up through 31 August, there’s no intel assessment that says the government is going to collapse and the military is going to collapse in 11 days that I’m aware of,” he added.

Milley said US military didn’t have the “full, wholesome assessment of leadership, morale, and will” among Afghan forces.  

“Many units did fight at the very end. But the vast majority put their weapons down and melted away in a very, very short period of time. I think that has do with will, leadership, and I think we still need to try to figure out exactly why that was. And I have some suggestions, but I’m not settled on them yet. But we clearly missed that,” he said.

“… We pulled our advisers off three years ago. When you pull advisers out of units, you can no longer assess things like leadership and will. … You can’t measure the human heart with a machine; you’ve got to be there,” he said.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was asked about the message that America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan sends to NATO allies and other allies around the world about the US’s credibility.

He added: “[There] will be people who question things going forward, but I would say that, you know, the United States military is one that – and the United States of America, people place great trust and confidence in. And relationships are things we have to work on continuously. We understand that and we’ll continue to do that.”

At the end of his remarks about Afghanistan, Gen. Mark Milley turned to calls he held in January and last October with his Chinese counterpart. He told lawmakers key Trump leaders and military officials were aware of the calls.

These calls have become a lightning rod for partisan criticism, with some Republicans calling for Milley’s resignation or firing. Milley said the calls were part of routine communications “with the knowledge and coordination of civilian oversight.”

“I am specifically directed to communicate with the Chinese by Department of Defense guidance,” he said. 

Eight people sat in on the October call between Milley and his Chinese counterpart, while 11 people sat in on the January call, Milley said. The calls were coordinated with then-Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and then-Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller.

“I personally informed both Secretary of State Pompeo and White House Chief of Staff Meadows about the call among other topics. Soon after that, I attended a meeting with Acting [Defense] Secretary Miller, where I briefed him on the call,” Milley said of the January call.

Milley continued: “These military-to-military communications at the highest level are critical to the security of the United States in order to deconflict military actions, manage crises, and prevent war between great powers that are armed with the world’s most deadliest weapons.” 

He said that the calls were coordinated after the US Defense Department learned of specific intelligence “which caused us to believe the Chinese were worried about an attack on them by the United States.” 

“I know, I am certain, that President Trump did not intend to attack the Chinese, and it is my directed responsibility, and it was my directed responsibility by the secretary to convey that intent to the Chinese,” Milley said.

He said that his task at the time was to “de-escalate” and that his message was consistent: “Stay calm, steady, and de-escalate. We are not going to attack you.”

Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley said it is “clear” that the Afghanistan war did not end in the way intended.

“It is clear — it is obvious — the war in Afghanistan did not end on the terms we wanted with the Taliban now in power in Kabul,” Milley told lawmakers during a Senate hearing on the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Milley said that the threat of an attack from terrorist groups remains “a very real possibility.”

“We must remember that the Taliban was and remains a terrorist organization, and they still have not broken ties with Al Qaeda. I have no illusions who we are dealing with,” Milley said. “It remains to be seen whether or not the Taliban can consolidate power or if the country will further fracture into civil war. But we must continue to protect the United States of America and its people from terrorist attacks coming from Afghanistan. A reconstituted Al Qaeda or ISIS with aspirations to attack the United States is a very real possibility.”

Watch the moment:

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Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley made clear in his opening statement of the warnings that military leaders, including himself, gave the Trump and Biden administrations.

A quick withdrawal, Milley says he told the White House in fall 2020, could lead to a collapse of the Afghan government and military, leading to a complete Taliban takeover.

Of the seven conditions placed on the Taliban in the Doha Agreement, signed in early 2020 between the Taliban and the Trump administration, only one was followed. The Taliban never attacked US forces following the agreement, but “failed to fully honor any other commitments,” Milley said.

“In the fall of 2020, my analysis was that an accelerated withdrawal without meeting specific and necessary conditions risks losing the substantial gains made in Afghanistan, damaging US worldwide credibility, and could precipitate a general collapse of the Afghan government, resulting in a complete Taliban takeover or general civil war,” Milley told lawmakers.

“My assessment remained consistent throughout,” he continued.

Milley said the Biden administration listened to the views of military leaders, giving them “serious consideration,” but Biden pushed forward with the withdrawal of all but 650 troops, which should have been required to secure the embassy in Kabul and Hamid Karzai airport. 

Milley was blunt in his assessment of the future of Afghanistan under Taliban rule. “A reconstituted al Qaeda or ISIS with aspirations to attack the United States is a very real possibility,” Milley warned. “And those conditions … could present themselves in the next 12 to 36 months.” 

As he neared the end of his opening remarks, Defense Secretary Austin shifted his focus to the entire 20-year war, asking frankly if the US had the right strategy, if it believed falsely that it could build an Afghan government that would last and if it could create a self-sustaining Afghan military.

Austin admitted that the US never understood the problems on the ground in Afghanistan, including endemic corruption that undermined and delegitimized the exact government the US was supporting.

“We need to consider some uncomfortable truths: that we did not fully comprehend the depth of corruption and poor leadership in their senior ranks, that we did not grasp the damaging effect of frequent and unexplained rotations by President Ghani of his commanders, that we didn’t anticipate the snowball effect caused by the deals that Taliban commanders struck with local leaders in the wake of the Doha agreement, and that the Doha agreement itself had a demoralizing effect on Afghan soldiers. And finally, that we failed to fully grasp that there was only so much for which – and for whom – many of the Afghan forces would fight.”

The collapse of the Afghan army in the face of a Taliban offensive “took us all by surprise,” Austin said.

CNN’s Oren Liebermann contributed reporting to this post.

In his opening remarks, Secretary of Defense Austin emphasized the planning that preceded the evacuation from Afghanistan and the positioning of forces that allowed troops to arrive in Kabul fairly quickly as the evacuation began.

As early as spring, the Pentagon began thinking about the possibility of a non-combatant evacuation and preparing for a number of scenarios, Austin told lawmakers. By early June, Austin pre-positioned forces in the region, he said, including three infantry battalions. 

Although the first two days of the evacuation were “difficult,” Austin acknowledged, US troops restored order in 48 hours, and the herculean effort to move tens of thousands of American citizens and at-risk Afghans began in earnest.

“We all watched with alarm the images of Afghans rushing the runway and our aircraft. We all remember the scenes of confusion outside the airport,” Austin said.

The secretary of defense went on to outline where things stand now.

“We are still working to get Americans out who wish to leave,” Austin said, though it is now the job of the State Department and the interagency, not the military.

Lawmakers have repeatedly criticized the Biden administration for concluding the military evacuation and withdrawal from Afghanistan while there were still American citizens who wanted to leave the country, in addition to the inability of the administration to say just how many Americans are left in Afghanistan. 

On Monday, a senior State Department official said the department is working to get out approximately 100 US citizens and Afghan green card holders from Afghanistan, but there was no indication of when it might happen or by what route they would leave the country.

“Even with no military presence on the ground, that part of our mission is not over,” Austin said. 

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin provided the Senate committee with the military’s latest numbers on the evacuation effort in Afghanistan.

“We planned to evacuate between 70,000-80,000 people. They evacuated more than 124,000,” he said. “We planned to move between 5,000-9,000 people per day. On average, they moved slightly more than 7,000 per day.”

Austin said that more than 387 US military aircraft departed from the region during the evacuation, averaging nearly 23 per day. “At the height of this operation, an aircraft was taking off every 45 minutes,” he said.

Austin conceded that the operation was not perfect: “We moved so many people so quickly out of Kabul that we ran into capacity and screening problems at intermediate staging bases outside of Afghanistan,” he said.

He said that the military is still working to get Americans and Afghan allies out who wish to leave the country.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will defend the Biden administration’s handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan, along with the planning and decision making throughout the planning and execution process, a senior defense official said.

During today’s Senate hearing, Austin will stress that President Biden listened to the Defense Department’s views during interagency discussions in a normal, though somewhat accelerated decision making process, the official said. 

One day after visiting a military base housing thousands of Afghan evacuees, Austin will acknowledge some mistakes and shortcomings at the beginning of the evacuation, the official said, but will argue that the non-combatant evacuation operation was largely a success, pointing to the movement of 124,000 people in a little more than two weeks.

Austin is also set to acknowledge the mistakes made in connection with the Aug. 29 drone strike that killed 10 Afghan civilians, including 7 children, said the official.

Even so, he will defend the Pentagon’s plan for “Over the Horizon” operations, in which the military will carry out strikes in Afghanistan, when needed, from airfields outside the country.

The Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the US withdrawal from Afghanistan has started, and President Biden’s top military leaders are set to testify soon.

The witnesses are:

Today’s hearing marks the first time the military leaders are testifying publicly since the full withdrawal took place.

All three officials are expected to face questions about the chaotic nature of the withdrawal, be pressed to explain the Biden administration’s plan for conducting counter-terrorism missions in the country going forward and be called upon to answer for the failures that led to a drone strike killing 10 civilians.

Read more about today’s hearing here.

Democratic Sen. Jack Reed, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has released his opening statement ahead of today’s hearing.

He says: “After nearly 20 years of war, enormous sacrifice by American and coalition military, diplomatic, and intelligence personnel, and vast U.S. investment, the Afghan state has failed and the Taliban has retaken control. We need to understand why and how.”

He says the committee will examine events surrounding the withdrawal but also urges members to examine missteps over the 20-year history of the war.

“I think it is equally important, however, that this Committee takes a step back and examines the broader two-decade mission that shaped the outcome we face today,” Reed is expected to say.

“Our withdrawal this summer and the events surrounding it did not happen in a vacuum. The path that led to this moment was paved with years of mistakes, from our catastrophic pivot to Iraq, to our failure to handle Pakistan’s support for the Taliban, to the flawed Doha Agreement signed by President Trump.”

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley are set to testify publicly before Senate lawmakers soon, marking the first time that top military officials will appear before Congress since the full withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan

Austin and Milley will be joined by the leader of US Central Command, Gen. Frank McKenzie, who played an integral role in facilitating the evacuation from Kabul — an effort that has been the focus of immense bipartisan criticism since the last American military aircraft departed the Afghan capital.

Key topics expected in the hearing: All three officials will undoubtedly face questions about the chaotic nature of the withdrawal, be pressed to explain the Biden administration’s plan for conducting counter-terrorism missions in the country going forward and be called upon to answer for the failures that led to a drone strike killing 10 civilians, including seven children, in Kabul during the final days of the evacuation.

Milley may also be grilled about new reporting in “Peril,” a book by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, which details the military leader’s phone conversations to reassure a nervous Chinese general and his efforts to limit then-President Trump from potentially ordering a dangerous military strike.

Read more about today’s hearing here.

The State Department is working to facilitate the departure of about 100 American citizens and legal permanent residents ready to leave Afghanistan, a senior State Department official said Monday.

The official stressed that the number “changes every day” as people change their minds or “take advantage of other options they may have to get out.”

The official told reporters on a call that the State Department is “constantly touching base” with US citizens believed to still be in Afghanistan, as well as other governments and air craft carriers to try to arrange charter flights.

The Department is also in touch with private groups organizing charter flights to try to advise them on complications associated with these efforts, the official said, telling reporters that there have been “challenges” with “every charter that has come to a USG reception point, principally in Doha.” 

“A bunch of people came out that that we weren’t expecting, that don’t necessarily know who they are and we don’t necessarily know if who they say they are it lines up with who the charter operators indicated they were,” they said.

“We’ve had stowaways. We’ve had ground crew that climbed on the plane. We’ve had any number of people get off those flights who are not on the manifested don’t necessarily have a sense of who they are or why they particularly think they would qualify,” they added. 

“In some cases we’ve had unaccompanied minors traveling without parents, traveling without a legal guardian, and some big question marks about why they were on the aircraft,” the official said.

The official noted that the State Department is working to see who in that population “legitimately can say they’re at acute risk” – describing that as “people who can demonstrably demonstrate that they’ve got active threats against them, they’ve got people looking for them” – “as opposed to people who simply are uncomfortable or fear the unknown that comes with the Taliban taking control of government and the state.” 

“Once we’ve got a precise look at that population, we can then better evaluate and ensure that senior leaders are have the opportunity to look at the range of implications associated with moving those people into the states or with holding them out and putting them through a regular refugee resettlement process in which some of them might come to the states and some of them might go on to other countries that collaborate with UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration,” they said.

The official described the Taliban’s “unpredictability regarding who is permitted to depart” as the biggest impediment to the departure of US citizens and others from Afghanistan. The absence of regular commercial air service is another big constraint, the official said.

“There’s a range of contact and dialogue ongoing with the Taliban, particularly in Doha, with the remaining members of the Taliban political commission who are based there,” the official said. 

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Gen. Frank McKenzie, the top general of US Central Command, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley will testify soon on Capitol Hill. They are expected to be grilled on a Kabul drone strike that took place in August.

A United States military investigation into a deadly Kabul airstrike on a vehicle in August found it killed 10 civilians and the driver and that the vehicle targeted was likely not a threat associated with ISIS-K, McKenzie, the top general of US Central Command, announced at the Pentagon earlier this month.

McKenzie told reporters that the strike — which he said killed seven children — was a “mistake” and offered an apology.

“This strike was taken in the earnest belief that it would prevent an imminent threat to our forces and the evacuees at the airport, but it was a mistake and I offer my sincere apology,” he said.

McKenzie added he is “fully responsible for this strike and this tragic outcome.”

The Pentagon’s announcement was expected to fuel more criticism of the Biden administration’s chaotic evacuation of Kabul and handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan more broadly.

While McKenzie stressed future strikes will likely be held to a higher standard, confirmation of the civilian death toll also provides insight into the obstacles ahead for military and intelligence officials tasked with fulfilling President Biden’s promise to make the terror group “pay” for its deadly suicide attack in Kabul.

The Pentagon maintained that at least one ISIS-K facilitator and three civilians were killed in what Milley had previously called a “righteous strike” on the compound on Aug. 29.

The investigation found that all of those killed in the residential compound were civilians.

Read more about the US airstrike here.