Blinken to Testify About US Withdrawal from Afghanistan  

WASHINGTON - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due to testify Monday before a congressional panel examining the country’s chaotic military withdrawal from Afghanistan at the end of its two-decade war, the longest in U.S. history. 

Opposition Republican lawmakers and some Democratic colleagues of President Joe Biden have attacked his handling of the withdrawal of troops, American citizens and thousands of Afghans who worked for U.S. forces as interpreters and advisers during the war.   The criticism was especially pronounced after 13 U.S. service members died in a suicide bomb attack at the Kabul airport in the waning days of the withdrawal. Islamic State-Khorasan, an Afghan offshoot of the terrorist group operating in the Middle East, claimed responsibility for the attack.   Blinken testifies Monday before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He appears on Tuesday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.