President Joe Biden vowed to continue evacuations from Afghanistan after explosions in Kabul killed 12 U.S. service members, and said the U.S. will retaliate against those responsible for the bombings.
“To those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes America harm, know this -- we will not forgive, we will not forget, we will hunt you down and make you pay,” Biden said Thursday in an address from the White House.
The two explosions outside Kabul’s airport killed 12 U.S. service members, and The Associated Press said at least 60 Afghans died. Biden said U.S. intelligence had determined that militants from ISIS-K, an affiliate of Islamic State in Afghanistan, were likely behind the blasts.
General Kenneth McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, said he expects more attacks as the U.S. moves to continue evacuations and pull American forces out of Afghanistan by Aug. 31. The U.S. State Department said it’s in contact with about 1,000 Americans it believes remain in Afghanistan and over two-thirds of them indicated they’re taking steps to exit the country.
“We will rescue the Americans who are there,” Biden said. “We will get our Afghan allies out.”
Biden was briefed on the attacks earlier Thursday by his national security team. The violence disrupted his schedule for the day, with the White House scrapping a planned virtual meeting between the president and governors over resettling Afghan refugees and delaying a meeting between Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
The U.S. and other nations had warned their citizens not to congregate near the airport in recent hours, citing a credible threat of a terrorist attack. Earlier in the week, Biden had warned that continued U.S. operations in the country faced a growing risk of targeting by ISIS-K. It was unclear in the immediate aftermath of Thursday’s bombings who was responsible.
Biden had previously said that he planned to withdraw all U.S. forces by Aug. 31, but left open the possibility of a continued presence if needed to evacuate American citizens seeking to flee the country after the Taliban takeover earlier this month.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, called on Speaker Nancy Pelosi to bring Congress back into session to address Wednesday’s attack, adding that “our enemies have taken advantage of the chaotic nature of the withdrawal.”
Biden had already gathered in the White House Situation Room with his top military and diplomatic advisers for a daily update on the chaotic evacuation effort early on Thursday when the blasts occurred outside the airport in the Afghan capital.
The team did not emerge from the Situation Room until more than two hours later, then Biden migrated to the Oval Office, as a steady stream of Pentagon personnel, some in uniform, filed in and out of the White House.
Some staff learned of the growing numbers of U.S. military dead from mounted television screens in the White House West Wing as the day progressed, and let out cries of despair as the numbers multiplied.
The U.S. military death toll in the Afghan war since 2001 is roughly 2,500.
Remaining any longer, the Democratic president told reporters on Aug. 20, could mean he would need to "send your sons, your daughters - like my son was sent to Iraq - to maybe die. And for what? For what?"
Thursday's U.S. military casualties were the first in Afghanistan since February 2020 and represented the deadliest day for American troops there in a decade.
'THE NIGHTMARE WE FEARED'
Some critics blamed the rushed evacuation, which threatens to leave some Americans behind in Afghanistan, for the deaths among the roughly 5,200 Americans providing security at Kabul's airport to close out U.S. involvement in Afghanistan after 20 years of conflict. U.S. officials said on Thursday about 1,000 Americans remained in Afghanistan.
"This is the nightmare we feared - and it's why for weeks, military, intelligence and congressional leaders from both parties have begged the president to stand up to the Taliban and push out the airport perimeter," Republican U.S. Senator Ben Sasse said.
"As we wait for more details to come in, one thing is clear: We can't trust the Taliban with Americans' security," added Democrat Bob Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in an implicit criticism of Biden's strategy.
Biden, who took office in January, pushed a May withdrawal target set by former President Donald Trump to Aug. 31. But, under pressure from Pentagon officials who warned that security risks from Islamist militants were rising at the airport, Biden refused to move it back further, despite pressure from allied nations.
A Biden adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the deaths of American troops underscored both why Biden made the decision to withdraw in the first place and the risks of an extended engagement in the country.
There are further risks to the president, including worsening internal Democratic Party divisions that have been brewing, the adviser said.
Until now, the White House has tried to push back on hostile media coverage, the adviser said, by citing the lack of U.S. deaths in the evacuation effort.
A long-time skeptic of the 20-year military presence in Afghanistan, Biden has said the United States long ago achieved its original rationale for invading the country in 2001: to root out al Qaeda militants and prevent another attack on the United States like the one launched on Sept. 11, 2001.
The mastermind of that attack, al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, was killed by a U.S. military team in neighboring Pakistan in 2011. Afghanistan's Taliban rulers had harbored al Qaeda militants ahead of the 2001 attack before being toppled from power after the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.
After Trump orchestrated a peace deal with the Taliban before leaving office, Biden and his team stayed in constant contact with the group to try to ensure a smooth U.S. evacuation.
Due to the day's events, Biden was forced to postpone - at least until Friday - his first face-to-face meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and canceled a meeting with a bipartisan group of state governors about temporarily housing or helping resettle Afghan refugees.
Material from Bloomberg and Reuters news services was used in this story.