Afghan Army Collapse "Took Us All By Surprise", Says US Defence Secretary

Lloyd Austin praised American personnel who helped airlift 124,000 Afghans out of the country

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin told Congress on Tuesday that the Afghan army's sudden collapse caught the Pentagon off-guard as he acknowledged miscalculations in America's longest war including corruption and damaged morale in Afghan ranks.

"The fact that the Afghan army we and our partners trained simply melted away - in many cases without firing a shot - took us all by surprise," Mr Austin told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "It would be dishonest to claim otherwise."