A Marine who was seriously wounded in the explosion at the Kabul airport during the final week of the U.S. war in Afghanistan recounted the horrific experience during a hearing on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.
Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews, who lost an arm and a leg in the 2021 suicide attack at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport, told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that he had spotted a person matching the description of the expected suicide bomber. He said he was not given the green light to shoot and that the man disappeared.
PREVIEWING FIRST GOP-LED HEARING ON AFGHAN WITHDRAWAL: ‘STUNNING FAILURE OF LEADERSHIP’
“Throughout the entirety of the day on Aug. 26, 2021, we disseminated the suicide bomber information to ground forces at Abbey Gate,” which included that he was with an older man, he explained. “They both had obvious mannerisms that go along with who we believed him to be. They handed out small cards to the crowd periodically, and the older man sat calmly and seemingly coached the bomber. Over the communication network, we passed that there was a potential threat and an attack imminent. This was as serious as it could get.”
Vargas-Andrews said his team leader had him in his sights, ready to take the shot, but that the battalion commander said he didn’t know if they were permitted to take the possible bomber out. The man disappeared.
“Eventually, the individual disappeared. To this day, we believe he was a suicide bomber. We made everyone on the ground aware. Operations had briefly halted but then started again. Plain and simple, we were ignored,” he added. “Our expertise was disregarded. No one was held accountable for our safety.”
Later that day, Vargas-Andrews was with Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Darin T. Hoover, whom he described as a “friend and mentor,” went to find an Afghan interpreter in the crowd, and they were waiting for every member of his family to get there when the bomb went off.
ISIS-K operative Abdul Rahman al Logari, who had been freed from prison at the abandoned Bagram Airfield in August 2021 when the Taliban took over Afghanistan, detonated a bomb that killed 13 U.S. service members and roughly 170 Afghan civilians who were attempting to flee.
Hoover, Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo, 25; Sgt. Nicole Gee, 23; Cpl. Hunter Lopez, 22; Cpl. Daegan Page, 23; Cpl. Humberto Sanchez, 22; Lance Cpl. David Espinoza, 20; Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, 20; Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum, 20; Lance Cpl. Dylan Merola, 20; and Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, 20, were killed in the blast. Navy hospitalman Maxton Soviak, 22, was also among those killed, as was 23-year-old Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss.
“A flash and a massive wave of pressure. I’m thrown 12 feet onto the ground when, instantly, I knew what had happened. I opened my eyes to Marines dead or unconscious lying around me,” he described, breaking down, adding that his right arm was “completely shredded and unusable,” while his “lower abdomen [was] soaked in blood.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“I tried to get up but could not. Laying there for a few minutes, I started to lose consciousness, when I heard Chaz, my team leader, screaming my name as he ran to me. His voice calling to me kept me awake,” he recounted. “When he got to me, he dragged me to safety and immediately started triaging me, tying tourniquets on my limbs, and doing anything he could to stop the bleeding.”
“The withdrawal was a catastrophe, in my opinion,” he added. “It was an inexcusable lack of accountability and negligence.”
Vargas-Andrews was one of six people who testified in front of the committee on Wednesday in what was the first hearing on the Afghan withdrawal since the Republicans took control of the House of Representatives this year. The other witnesses are Aidan Gunderson, a former Army specialist who left active duty in July, and three military veterans who were involved with the ad hoc effort to help locate and guide Afghan allies looking to flee the Taliban regime. Camille Mackler, the executive director of the Immigrant Advocates Response Collaborative, which has assisted with resettling Afghans in the United States, testified as well.
