Kabul Airport Attack Investigation Uncovers Previously Hidden, Classified Documents

Senior Advisor to the Secretary of War Sean Parnell revealed in a social media post today that an ongoing War Department investigation into the circumstances surrounding the 2021 terrorist airport bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan, has uncovered classified documents that had not been previously located.

Parnell gave the update on the fifth anniversary of the suicide bombing attack at then-Hamid Karzai International Airport's Abbey Gate, which killed 13 U.S. service members and approximately 170 Afghan civilians.

"Recently, my team recovered highly relevant classified documents - material that should have been disclosed - stashed and hidden away in safes where they would not be found," Parnell said, adding that, once the documents were discovered and examined by a special review panel, "it became clear why someone tried to hide them."

Parnell went on to say that he didn't want to disclose the contents of the classified documents prematurely.

"I'm not going to give you a convenient version of the truth, nor will I give you a rushed one. Here is my commitment: We are following the evidence to wherever it leads and to whoever it touches. We're not accepting incomplete or comfortable answers," he said.

One year ago, on the fourth anniversary of the attack and while surrounded by Gold Star family members of the victims in the Oval Office, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced that Parnell - himself a veteran of the war in Afghanistan - had been selected to lead the special review panel looking into the attack and that the ongoing review was taking place on behalf of the American people and on behalf of the Gold Star families.

"America deserves answers as far as what happened in Afghanistan," Hegseth said. "The military needs to answer for what happened."

During his address on social media, Parnell spoke highly of the panel members, noting that they have extensive military service in Afghanistan.

"These patriots commanded troops; they took fire; they carried the wounded, and they buried their friends," he said. "They knew how decisions in Afghanistan became consequences because they are the ones who lived with them."

The establishment of the special review panel followed U.S. Central Command's supplemental review in April 2024, which revisited the military's original investigation into the attack.

That review, which identified the lone suicide attacker as a member of ISIS-Khorasan, determined the initial investigation's findings were accurate: that the attack could not have been prevented at the tactical level.

Though Parnell did not give a specific timeframe as to when he anticipates the special review panel's work being completed, he did ensure the thoroughness and integrity of its investigation.

"The American people and the families who sacrificed everything are owed the full picture of how and why those decisions were made, and we're going to give it to them," he said. "That's a promise - not just for today, not just for an anniversary - but until it's done."