US Secretary Defense Lloyd Austin mysterious disappearance after complications in cancer surgery

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin underwent minimally invasive surgery on December 22, but complications arose on January 1, including a urinary tract infection and fluid accumulation in the small intestine.

Austin, 70, has been at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center since Jan. 1. The fact that the Pentagon has been largely hidden from the public, the White House and Congress for the past week has sparked a major political backlash.

President Joe Biden's administration is struggling to calm political tensions over revelations that the president did not know until Jan. 4 about his defense secretary's Jan. 1 hospitalization.

John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said: "Until this morning, no one in the White House knew that Secretary of State Austin had prostate cancer."

"It doesn't have to be this way," Kirby said.

The Pentagon confirmed that Mr. Austin remained hospitalized Tuesday. The spokesman did not say when he would be fired.

Mr. Austin, a retired four-star general, become the first African-American secretary of defense in 2020.