The Senate has confirmed the promotion of a general involved in the Afghanistan withdrawal.

The Senate quietly confirmed Lt. Gen. Christopher Donahue, who was seen in a viral night vision photo as the final American soldier out of Kabul, Afghanistan, to lead U.S. Army forces in Europe and Africa.

Politico reported that Donahue, who led the 82nd Airborne Division during the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, was promoted to four-star general by President Biden, but the confirmation was delayed due to one senator holding it up.

The procedural hold was placed by Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla.

The 82nd Airborne, led by Donahue, was responsible for securing the airfield at the Kabul airport during evacuations before the country fell to the Taliban, but Mullin has been a vocal critic of the Biden-Harris administration's handling of the botched withdrawal, which was mired by the killing of 13 U.S. service members and roughly 170 Afghan civilians during a suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport's Abbey Gate.

In an Aug. 24, 2024, statement marking the three-year anniversary of the suicide bombing attack, the senator criticized Donahue and other officials.

"No one has been held accountable for the disaster, including Gen. Milley, Gen. McKenzie, Gen. Donahue, U.S. Ambassador to Tajikistan John Pommersheim, or anyone at the State Department. To this day, no one has testified before Congress as to who gave the directive. No one has been held accountable for the 13 brave American heroes who died at Abbey Gate or the countless Americans who lost their lives trying to escape Kabul."

Mark Esper, Trump's former defense secretary and critic, defended Donahue's nomination and urged for the hold to be lifted last month.

The responsibility for the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 lies with the White House, not the Defense Department, and definitely not with the uniformed leaders who followed President Biden's flawed orders.

Trump had pledged to dismiss senior officials involved in the withdrawal, excluding Donahue.

Last month, a U.S. official disclosed to NBC News that the Trump transition team was preparing a list of potential court-martials for current and former senior military officers involved in the withdrawal.

On Monday, the Senate unanimously confirmed Donahue's promotion to commander of US Army Europe-Africa by dropping the hold, despite Mullin not publicly commenting on it.

Since 2022, Donahue has been the leader of the 18th Airborne Corps at Fort Liberty, North Carolina.

He has held leadership positions in various military operations, including serving as the Special Operations Joint Task Force Afghanistan's leader and the Joint Chiefs of Staff's deputy director for special operations and counterterrorism.