US House Armed Services Committee confirms no payments made to Taliban during evacuation

In their first congressional testimony on the tumultuous withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, and defence Secretary Lloyd Austin denied possessing any knowledge of payment offered to the extremist organisation by the United States during last month's evacuation. "To my knowledge, there was not," Austin said during the US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on America's withdrawal from Afghanistan on Wednesday. Giving the similar response, Milley said, "I have no knowledge of any money that transferred from any element of the United States government to the Taliban."

Further, explaining the evacuation led by the US army, the Defence Secretary called the operation "historical" for America. He said that the plan was made for evacuating 70,000-80,000 people, however, noticing the unforeseen condition of Afghanistan, the US troops evacuated more than 1,24,000 people. "We evacuated more than 124,000." "Not a single [military aircraft] sortie was missed for maintenance, fuel, or logistical problems. It was the largest airlift conducted in U.S. history, and it was executed in just 17 days," he added. The Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin even told the administration to ask the same question to themselves in order to assess the larger aspect of the 20 years that America invested in the war-torn country. "We must pause to think about the lessons that we have learned over the past 20 years," said Austin to the US House Armed Services Committee.

At least 2,500 soldiers needed to safeguard Afghanistan from Taliban: Milley

Earlier on Tuesday, Milley had termed the recent development a "strategic failure" for both the US government and Army. The top US military officer said the government should have kept thousands of US soldiers in Afghanistan in order to keep track of the real-time movement of the Talibani group. Milley, however, refused to answer a question on what advice he had given US President Joe Biden regarding the withdrawal of all troops from the war-torn country. When asked about his personal opinion about keeping the American soldiers in Afghanistan, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said at least 2,500 soldiers were needed to safeguard the country from the extremist group. "Lessons need to be learned, including whether the US military made the Afghans overly dependent on American technology in a mistaken effort to make the Afghan army look like the American army," added Milley. 

(With inputs from agencies)

(Image: AP)