Pentagon finds classified documents linked to final days of Afghanistan war | Al Bawaba

Published August 27th, 2026 - 06:57 GMT

ALBAWABA - Officials in the U.S. Department of Defense (the Pentagon) announced that they found hidden, classified documents related to the final days of the Afghanistan war, according to Politico.The release of the documents comes amid the American government's review of the 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, examining the decisions that preceded the departure of American troops from Kabul and determining responsibility for the failures that accompanied the operation.Meanwhile, officials said the documents were kept in safes to prevent their discovery and declined to disclose their contents.Committee Chairman Sean Parnell said that his team, during its in-depth investigation, uncovered "things they hadn't anticipated," adding that the volume of information emerging increases as the review expands and that the investigation is ongoing.American soldiers wait to board helicopters at Kandahar airbase ahead of Operation Deliberate Strike, some 60 kilometers north of Kandahar, Afghanistan 19 May 2003. Photo by KAMAL KISHORE / POOL / AFPIt is worth noting that the situation turned chaotic during the final days of the American presence in Afghanistan. As the withdrawal process continued, the situation turned into a mess at Kabul airport, coinciding with the rapid collapse of the Afghan government and the Taliban's return to power.Criticism intensified following the suicide bombing at the Abbey Gate of Kabul airport in August 2021, which killed 13 American service members, along with dozens of Afghan civilians attempting to leave the country.American Secretary of War Pete Hegseth had upgraded the awards for U.S. Marines who ran toward danger during the 2021 Abbey Gate bombing in Afghanistan, saying the Biden Pentagon inappropriately downgraded the original award submissions."They stood in the direct blast zone with minimal cover, fully aware of an eminent suicide threat — yet they STAYED on that line because they knew that their brothers in arms and thousands of innocents depended on them," Hegseth said.