President Joe Biden and to start with girl Jill Biden attended a “dignified transfer” function Sunday to mark the homecoming of the stays of U.S. service members killed previous 7 days in the terrorist attack outside the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Dressed in black, the initial pair arrived early Sunday at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, the place they satisfied with the families of the fallen provider users.
The services associates were killed guarding the Kabul airport as portion of the airlift to evacuate People in america and Afghan refugees from Afghanistan’s capital, now in the arms of the Taliban.
In the solemn celebration, Biden, the to start with lady and other superior-position officers saluted or place their hands over their hearts as pallbearers gradually carried every flag-draped casket off a C-17 armed service transport aircraft and into black vans waiting around close by.
Dignitaries standing with the president provided the chiefs of 4 military assistance branches, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of Condition Antony Blinken. All wore black masks.
Biden at numerous times shut his eyes tightly and stood with his head bowed, fingers guiding his again.
Spouse and children customers observed from a personal location on the tarmac, where sobs could be read all through the if not silent party, according to a pool report.
The fallen assistance customers traveled from Kabul to Kuwait to a big U.S. base in Germany in advance of they arrived in Dover.
Thirteen U.S. assistance members and at least 95 Afghans were killed in twin explosions Thursday. The self-proclaimed Islamic State terrorist team, which has battled the Taliban, claimed accountability for the suicide assault.
The 11 services associates honored at the occasion ended up Military Workers Sgt. Ryan Knauss, Marine Staff Sgt. Darin Hoover, Marine Sgt. Johanny Rosariopichardo, Maritime Sgt. Nicole Gee, Maritime Cpl. Daegan Web site, Marine Cpl. Humberto Sanchez, Maritime Lance Cpl. David Espinoza, Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, Maritime Lance Cpl. Dylan Merola, Marine Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui and Navy Hospitalman Maxton Soviak. Most have been in their early 20s.
The households of the two other slain Marines did not take aspect in the general public function.
The transfers have been kept largely non-public right until 2009, when the military’s plan toward the news media modified. Due to the fact then, much more than 2,000 fallen assistance users have passed by way of Dover in transfer occasions attended by about 10,000 household associates.
Previous President Barack Obama attended two dignified transfers. Former President Donald Trump attended 4. Sunday marked Biden’s initially. Dover is also where his late son, Beau, was deployed on his way to Iraq in the course of a tour of responsibility with the Delaware Nationwide Guard. He later on died of brain most cancers.
Addressing the place Thursday, Biden praised the People who were being killed as “the backbone of America” and vowed revenge on individuals who perpetrated the assault. “We will hunt you down and make you pay back,” he claimed.
Authorities have been on superior warn for far more attacks, and the Protection Office explained a U.S. drone executed a “self-protection” strike Sunday on a auto that posed “an imminent threat” to the Kabul airport.
“We are self-assured we productively hit the goal. Considerable secondary explosions from the automobile indicated the presence of a sizeable total of explosive material,” Navy Capt. Bill Urban, a spokesperson for U.S. Central Command, reported in a statement. “We continue to be vigilant for prospective upcoming threats.”
The U.S. introduced a retaliatory strike Friday, killing two “substantial-profile” Islamic Point out targets in a drone strike in Afghanistan, the Pentagon reported.
CORRECTION (Aug. 29, 2021, 6:45 p.m. ET): An before model of this write-up misspelled the name of one of the Marines killed in the assault final week outdoors the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. He was Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, not Kareemnikoui.