Last Thursday, a suicide bomber detonated an explosive vest at the main gate of Kabul’s international airport, unleashing a horrific blast that killed nearly 200 people. But, according to a new report from Politico, the gate should have been closed. Citing classified notes from top-level U.S. military meetings, the report states that U.S. commanders wanted to shut down the Abbey Gate hours before it was rocked by the explosion, but decided to keep it open to allow British allies to carry on with their accelerated evacuation schedule. Politico reports that U.S. commanders initially planned to close the gate by Thursday afternoon, but evacuees were still being processed at 6 p.m. when the explosion rang out. The plan to close the gate was reportedly made after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned military leaders leaders of an imminent “mass casualty event.”

Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said in a statement to Politico: “This story is based on the unlawful disclosure of classified information and internal deliberations of a sensitive nature... As soon as we became aware of the material divulged to the reporter, we engaged Politico at the highest levels to prevent the publication of information that would put our troops and our operations at the airport at greater risk.”