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A Marine Corps sniper stationed at the Kabul airport the day of a deadly suicide attack wept on Wednesday as he described in horrific detail the chaos and bloodshed surrounding the U.S. military’s hectic withdrawal in the final hours of the war in Afghanistan.
Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews, who was seriously wounded in the attack, described the scene at the airport as “surreal,” with hundreds of Afghans rushing toward the airport gate in a frantic attempt to flee the brutal Taliban regime.
Many suffered from severe malnutrition. Infants were dying. Some Afghans who were turned away from the airport tried to kill themselves with the razor wire used to keep the crowds at bay.
“They thought this was merciful compared to the Taliban torture that they faced,” Vargas-Andrews said.
The devastating suicide attacks – which killed an estimated 170 Afghans and 13 U.S. troops – propelled President Joe Biden to the most perilous moment of his presidency and caused his approval ratings to plummet as Americans questioned his handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan.A deadly suicide attack in Afghanistan
The attacks, the swift rout of the Afghanistan’s American-backed government by Taliban insurgents and the messy withdrawal of U.S. troops brought criticism at home and from U.S. allies and called into question Biden’s campaign to restore America’s reputation abroad after four tumultuous years of Donald Trump’s presidency.
“What happened in Afghanistan was a systemic breakdown of the federal government at every level, and a stunning failure of leadership by the Biden administration,” said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which is investigating Biden’s decision to bring U.S. troops home from Afghanistan and the frenzied departure that ensued
At a hearing before the committee on Wednesday, Vargas-Andrews and others recalled the disorder and confusion of the closing days of the war. A suicide bomber and gunmen attacked crowds of Afghans flocking to the Hamid Karzai International Airport amid an airlift for those fleeing the Taliban takeover on Aug.
