The Republican-led committee about the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 has now come to an end.

Two retired army generals, the former chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen Mark Milley, and former commander of US Central Command, Gen Kenneth McKenzie testified for a few minutes shy of four hours.

Amid a highly politicised line of questioning from Republican and Democratic representatives, the two former generals hinted that neither the Trump nor the Biden administration had a handle on what happened in Afghanistan:

• Milley told the hearing that the "fundamental flaw" of the withdrawal was the timing of the US State Department order to evacuate civilians
• Both Milley and McKenzie said it was hard to contain Kabul's Karzai Airport and protect civilians after the Afghan government fell, partly blaming Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani who fled the country
• Milley said that every single piece of American-owned equipment was either taken back or destroyed. But the hearing heard American equipment given to the Afghan government likely ended up on the black market
• Both former generals were also grilled on the failed drone strike that killed 10 innocent people just days before the withdrawal
• The chairman of the committee, Republican Michael McCaul, revealed the White House and Congress have agreed to grant 12,000 visas to Afghans who assisted the US.

Thanks for joining us. Our writers today were Adam Durbin, Krystyna Gajda, Tarik Habte, Ece Goksedef and Barbara Tasch.

This page was edited by Brandon Livesay and Phil McCausland.

Yogita Limaye
South Asia correspondent

Image source, EPA

When the Doha peace agreement between the Taliban and the US was being signed in 2020, Taliban leaders made public statements claiming their views on women had evolved, and they believed women have the right to study and work within the Islamic framework.

Afghan activists had warned that the agreement should include safeguards for women’s rights because they didn’t trust the Taliban’s words. They have been proved right.

On the ground in Afghanistan, girls above the age of 13 are not allowed to get an education. Women have been barred from working for domestic and foreign NGOs.

Except in health, security and a few other sectors, women aren’t allowed to work. It’s perhaps the biggest rollback in human rights that the world has seen in recent decades.

But women in Afghanistan don’t believe the world is fighting for them.

“The world has turned its back on us,” one Afghan woman told me. “We feel broken and forgotten.”

After a marathon session of nearly four hours, the public testimony of both retired Generals has come to a close.

Both ranking members of the committee, Republican Michael McCaul and Democrat Gregory Meeks, have just made some closing remarks.

The chairman has said the generals and congress members will now move to the classified portion of the briefing, which by its nature we will not have access to.

But we'll be bringing you a quick round up of what Gen Milley and Gen McKenzie had to say shortly, thanks for sticking with us.

Darrell Issa, a Republican Congressmen from California, asked both retired generals what they would have done differently in the withdrawal, if they had the authority to change how the operation played out.

Gen McKenzie replies simply that "I would have begun sooner", which Gen Milley agrees with.

The former most senior general in the US military immediately adds that he would have extracted the State Department and embassy officials in the "middle of July", which he says was "debated and discussed" at the time.

Questions linger years after US withdrawal from Afghanistanpublished at 20:45 Greenwich Mean Time 19 March

20:45 GMT 19 March

Lyse Doucet
Chief international correspondent

The events of August 2021 will remain forever seared in memory, in history.

Afghans forced to flee tell me they are still dealing with the grief of that sudden frenzied farewell. Senior American commanders, as well as Western diplomats, say the same.

Even those of us who were there to report will never forget that panic and fear at Kabul airport.

So many "what ifs" still darken that moment. What if the last talks in Doha to try to secure a peaceful transition had not been aborted? What if US forces had agreed to secure the capital, not just the airport, in those final weeks? And what if President Ghani had not fled?

Accusations of betrayal still abound. Many Afghans say they accept US-led NATO forces had to leave one day, but regret the way they did it. Others say there were no good options to end this “forever war”.

When the last US soldier left Afghan soil, Kabul exploded with guns fired in celebration by Taliban hailing their "defeat of the American empire" – a moment no one could have imagined 20 years earlier when US-led forces toppled them.

The committee chairman, Michael McCaul, has just announced that the White House and Congressional leaders have agreed to grant 12,000 special immigrant visas for Afghan nationals who assisted the US.

He said the decision was supported by him and the ranking member.

"We can't say we left them behind, but we can't give a visa to get them out of there, right?" he says.

Image source, EPA

US President Joe Biden's administration has largely blamed its chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan on his predecessor, Donald Trump.

A report in 2023 stated Biden was "severely constrained" by Trump's decisions, including a 2020 deal with the Taliban to end the war.

But the report also acknowledged the government should have begun the evacuation of civilians earlier.

In 2021 in the days after the withdrawal, Biden said ending US military involvement in Afghanistan “was the right decision".

"How many more American lives is it worth?" asked the Democratic president.

He said that despite the "messy" pull-out, "there was never a good time to withdraw US forces".

Florida Republican Mike Waltz says "the more I listen to this hearing, the more infuriated I get".

He says what upsets veterans families are some of the statements from the US president, during the evacuation.

In one such statement, Biden said the generals never advised him to leave 2,500 troops at the Bagram airbase.

He asks Milley if it is an accurate statement - that the generals never advised him to leave a stay behind force to keep a lid on what he says are "half the world's terrorist organisations".

Milley confirms he advised Biden to maintain a stay behind force.

This revelation is not new, however. Milley told a hearing the same thing in 2021.

Waltz then goes down a list of Biden quotes which he has printed on a large board propped up behind his chair.

Another Biden statement is read out - that people will not be seen being lifted off the roof of an embassy of the US from Afghanistan, saying it is not comparable with Saigon.

"I think this picture proves that not to be the case," says Waltz, pointing to an image behind him.

Image source, Getty Images

Jim Baird, a Republican Rep from Indiana, asks about the weapons the US army provided for the Afghan forces which were left behind during the withdrawal.

Gen Milley says that this equipment was given to the Afghan security forces, so they were owned by the Afghan government.

"The US did not leave these equipments," Milley emphasised.

He says that he expects the weapons were sold and are on the black market, and he has "zero doubt" that those weapons went to the hands of people with "nefarious" intentions for the US.

We've been hearing a terse exchange between General McKenzie and Republican Warren Davidson, a retired US Army officer.

Both agree the State department didn't get it right with the NEO (Non-combatant evacuation operation), but McKenzie and Davidson disagree over tactical military decisions related to Abbey Gate - where two suicide bombers attacked crowds of Afghans trying to flee the Taliban during the US evacuation.

Thirteen US soldiers died in the bombing, along with 170 Afghan civilians.

"We need to provide some accountability... that's part of the goal of this hearing," says Davidson.

Democrat Representative of Michigan, Bill Keating, uses his time to say that Congress needs to pass the military aid package for Ukraine.

"We must act on it now because failure to do that will jeopardise other Americans' lives to defend democracy in Europe. Put the bill on the floor to vote," he concluded his comments.

"I agree with this assessment," replies Chairman McCaul, a Republican.

Bill Huizenga, a Michigan Republican, addresses Gen Milley about not knowing the number of US citizens and allies in Afghanistan.

"My office alone had nearly 200 open cases in my congressional district," he says.

His colleagues were having similar numbers, he says.

"This fantasy that we didn't know there were US citizens over there, is a complete fallacy," he says.

"State department should have been talking to us, and they were not."

Huizega talks about an interpreter with the army, who was able to flee Afghanistan and is now a US citizen living in the States. His wife, he says, was not as fortunate and was beaten by the Taliban.

The US embassy had her passport. "Guess what they did? They destroyed it all on the retrograde," Huizega says.

"She had to print off a letter of proof, but this only served to show the Taliban where she was going."

She was finally brought to the US this past weekend, he says.

"If that isn't an indication of a broken policy and broken system, I don't know what is."

Here is a rare moment of laughter during today's hearing, when the chairman of the committee, Michael McCaul, called Rep Madeleine Dean "Mr Dean" and then corrected himself.

"It's the second time I've done that," he said.

The laughter came when Dean answered "Thank you chairwoman".

She also said that "We need a laugh here today".

Gen McKenzie has told the hearing that they needed to leave by 31 August because of intelligence reports which suggested after that date, US troops "would have been fighting the Taliban".

So he recommended to get out by the 31st of August and then resort to diplomatic means to get the US citizens out.

"Otherwise we would need to just to stay there to get the opportunity to get the citizens out."

McKenzie also emphasised again that it remains unclear how many Americans were in Afghanistan then, and even now.

Gen Milley tells Democrat Jared Moskowitz from Florida that the "fundamental flaw" of the withdrawal was the timing of the US State Department order to evacuate civilians.

He describes this noncombatant evacuation operation, referred to as an NEO, as coming "too slow and too late" - which then led to the chaotic and deadly events of the last few days of US troops in Afghanistan.

Milley adds that other key errors also took place, but the timing of the NEO in August 2021 was the most important.

McKenzie and Milley are speaking to Rep Madeleine Dean, a Democrat from Pennsylvania.

They are both saying it was hard to contain Kabul's Karzai Airport and protect civilians after the Afghan government fell.

Milley underlines that when Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, it was "the straw that broke the camel's back".

"I don't want to make comparisons, but I suppose you had Ghani and Zelensky," he says, referring to Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky.

"Zelensky stays, and his military stays in Kiev, and they are fighting tooth and nail."

"In this particular case, President Ghani and his entire cabinet, less one, got on airplanes and took off out of the country."

Now it's Gerry Connolly, a Democrat from Virginia who is up and he dives right into the politics of it all.

He asks Milley about some of Donald Trump's social media posts which described the general as a "woke train wreck". Trump also alleged Milley was involved with China.

Connolly also mentions that a Republican made similar comments online, calling him a traitor. He asks for Milley's reaction to those statements.

Milley says he doesn't agree with the comments, but "it's a free country and people can say what they want". He adds that as much as he doesn't agree with them, he is present at the hearing for the families of the innocent people that have died and the families of those who served in Afghanistan and asks to stay on topic.

Connolly finishes by saying those kinds of comments are dangerous and unbecoming of those who serve in public office.

Image source, Getty Images

Next up asking questions is Republican Brian Mast from Florida, an Afghanistan veteran who lost both of his legs in the country while working on a bomb disposal mission.

Mast served in the US Army, specialising in explosive ordinance disposal between 2006 and 2010.

He was injured in 2010 in Kandahar, after stepping on an improvised explosive device (IED) while clearing a path for US Army Rangers.

The blast meant Mast had both of his legs amputated, as well as losing his left index finger.

Mast's questions focus on the US passing the Taliban intelligence about militants affiliated with the so-called Islamic State for targetting.

In a series of questions, Gen McKenzie tells Mast that the US had ceased to target people affiliated with IS or al-Qaedain the few weeks leading up to the withdrawal.

Mast concludes his statement by saying the decision to stop targeting these groups "gave aid and comfort" to the enemies of the US.

Failed Biden presidential challenger Dean Phillips has been asking questions.

He's been talking about his visit to Vietnam, where his father was killed during the war, and how much it meant to him, to see the land.

In response to his questioning, Milley says that it will "take years" to get families answers, and to responsibly bring Americans back to Afghanistan.

Milley says he will go to his grave unwilling to reconcile with the Taliban, and still considers them a terrorist organisation. He says he does not recommend that any family members return there.

McKenzie adds that "it is decades away before there is going to be any rapprochement with Afghanistan".

He says of the Taliban, "they themselves don't have a desire to attack us and our homeland, but they do harbour entities and organisations that do have a desire to do that".

Democrat Brad Schneider from Illinois has asked Gen Milley for his thoughts on the Doha agreement - a short-lived peace plan negotiated in the Qatari capital between the Taliban and US in 2020.

Milley says the military was not consulted on the negotiations, also noting he would not "expect to be" as it was a diplomatic initiative carried out by the US State Department under former President Donald Trump.

He adds that military leaders knew talks were going on, but did not participate drawing up or approving the terms of the deal.

The retired general makes the case that the Doha agreement "pulled the rug out, morale wise" of both the Afghan security forces and government.

"At that point they knew with certainty there was a date set. So I think that probably had a significant effect, historians are going to have to work out what that effect actually is."