Key Points
•13 U.S. service members are killed in Afghanistan.
•The Biden Administration relied on the Taliban to provide security in Kabul.
•The Haqqani Network, the Taliban’s security force in Kabul, has documented links to ISIS-K, the group which claimed responsibility for the airport attack.
Written by Steven Richards
On August 26, 2021, a suicide bombing attack killed 13 U.S. service members and many Afghans at the Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIA) in Kabul, Afghanistan – the center of U.S. evacuation operations in country. The attack was the deadliest day for the U.S. military since 2011 and took place five days before President Biden’s deadline for complete withdrawal from the country.
The conduct of President Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan continues to be widely scrutinized. The terrorist attack at HKIA should be no different.
Does the Biden Administration deserve any responsibility for the attack?
In short, yes.
Because of its hasty withdrawal, the Biden Administration was forced to entrust the security of Kabul to the Taliban, who placed the Haqqani Network—a violent and radical Jihadist group—in charge of controlling the city, according to reporting by the Wall Street Journal. Even more problematic, the Haqqanis—themselves designated terrorists—have documented links to the Islamic State-Khorasan (ISIS-K), the group the Defense Department accused of perpetrating the attack on HKIA.
Essentially, the Biden Administration relied on designated terrorists for security around the Kabul airport leaving American citizens and service members vulnerable.
And now, 13 American service members are dead.
Why did the United States military have to rely on the Taliban for security? The Biden Administration wanted to conduct a hasty withdrawal before the arbitrary deadline of August 31st.
In remarks to the press on August 16th, Biden claimed that the Trump-era agreement with the Taliban boxed him in: “When I came into office, I inherited a deal that President Trump negotiated with the Taliban. Under his agreement, U.S. forces would be out of Afghanistan by May 1, 2021…The choice I had to make, as your President, was either to follow through on that agreement or be prepared to go back to fighting the Taliban in the middle of the spring fighting season.”
President Biden has consistently placed the blame on former-President Trump for the agreement with the Taliban, known as the Doha Agreement. Biden’s contention is that this agreement limited his choices and forced a rapid withdrawal. However, the Doha Agreement negotiated by the Trump Administration explicitly links a final U.S. withdrawal to the Taliban’s promise not to “cooperate with groups or individuals threatening the security of the United States and its allies.”
A report submitted to the United Nations in May identified the Haqqanis as a “primary liaison actor” between the Taliban and al-Qaeda. The Taliban’s cooperation with the Haqqani Network and al-Qaeda then nullify the Doha Agreement. Cooperation with terrorists explicitly violates the Doha Agreement. According to the Associated Press, a top aide to U.S. negotiator Zalmay Khalilzad affirmed that “there is no obligation for the United States to withdraw troops if the Afghan parties are unable to reach agreement or if the Taliban show bad faith.”
President Biden could have extended the withdrawal without violating U.S. commitments and taken steps to support the Afghan government until all Americans were successfully evacuated.
Based on the Doha agreement, signed by then-President trump, the United States withdrawal from Afghanistan was a guaranteed eventuality. Unfortunately, decisions made by the Biden administration led to conditions which fostered a tragedy.
Steven Richards is a research analyst for GAI.
