Biden's promised review of pullout from Afghanistan not yet started - source

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Biden administration has not yet begun a promised review of its handling of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, as officials focus on the more immediate issue of evacuations, a source familiar with the situation said on Thursday.

President Joe Biden, facing strong criticism from bipartisan lawmakers for his handling of the crisis, told ABC News in an interview on Wednesday "we're going to go back in hindsight and look" at whether the U.S. exit could have been conducted in a better way.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Tuesday that "we will conduct an extensive hotwash," meaning a performance evaluation, on how the pullout was handled.

"We will take a look at every aspect of this from top to bottom," he said.

The source, asked Thursday if the review had begun, told Reuters on the condition of anonymity that the U.S. focus for now is on operations on the ground and getting as many people out of Afghanistan as possible.

Several congressional committees have promised https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-lawmakers-set-hearing-probe-events-afghanistan-2021-08-17 to hold hearings and House Intelligence Committee is to receive a classified briefing on Monday on the situation from the intelligence community.

Biden told ABC Wednesday that "the idea that somehow there's a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I don't know how that happens."

(Reporting By Steve Holland; Editing by Heather Timmons and Diane Craft)