Top Republican vows to press Austin, Blinken at secret briefing on conducting strikes in Afghanistan

Washington [US], February 2 : Jim Inhofe, a top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday (local time) vowed to press US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken at a classified briefing scheduled for Wednesday on any plans to carry out over-the-horizon strikes against terrorist targets in Afghanistan.
"Here's what I'd like to hear from Secretary Blinken and Secretary Austin... I want to understand what threats we face from terrorist organizations in Afghanistan today. I want to know how the administration plans to counter these threats, seeing as we have conducted zero over-the-horizon counterterrorism strikes since August - not even to punish the terrorists who killed 13 American service members at Abbey Gate, as the president promised to do," Inhofe said in a press release.
The Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a classified briefing on Afghanistan with Blinken and Austin on Wednesday, reported Sputnik.
Inhofe also said he will seek an update on the number of Americans still in Afghanistan since the mass exodus in August.
As part of the Doha pact, the Taliban provided the US with assurances that it would not become a terrorist safe haven.
In December, the Afghanistan Ambassador to Tajikistan Muhammad Zahir Agbar told Sputnik that the Taliban grants Al-Qaeda and Islamic State Afghan passports. The practice is a signal that terrorism is being legalized there, the ambassador said.