UK PM rejects Afghanistan inquiry as MPs debate Taliban takeover

Boris Johnson says ‘most key questions’ on UK’s role in intervention already considered as he rules out new probe.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson rules out an inquiry into the United Kingdom’s involvement in Afghanistan, disappointing legislators who have called for one following the Taliban’s rapid seizure of power in the country. Addressing Parliament on Wednesday, Johnson dismissed pleas from across the political spectrum for a public hearing into the part played by the UK in the years-long intervention in Afghanistan headed by the United States in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks. He told legislators, recalled from their summer recess for an emergency debate on Afghanistan, that he believed “most of the key questions have already been extensively got in to”, adding an “extensive defence review” had been carried out after the “combat mission ended in 2014”.