"We will respond with force and precision at our time at a place we choose in a moment of our choosing," he said.
Biden emphasized that Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley and the commanders in the field have communicated that they prefer to stick to the mission, which is designed to get as many people out before the end of the month.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki later said any additional troops would be minimal.
“What we're talking about here is avenging these deaths from terrorists,” Psaki said. “We're not talking about sending tens of thousands of troops back for an endless war that we've been fighting for 20 years.”
— Courtney Subramanian and Joey Garrs
Biden said he was made aware by the U.S. intelligence community that ISIS-K had been planning "a complex set of attacks" against U.S. personnel and others.
After offering his condolences to the families of the victims of the explosions outside Kabul's airport, he delivered a stern warning for those who carried out the attack.
"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," he said. "We will hunt you down and make you pay."
— Courtney Subramanian
Biden says he bears the “responsibility” for the attacks outside of the Kabul airport that killed 12 U.S. service members and wounded others, the first casualties in Afghanistan since Feb. 2020.
"I bear the responsibility, fundamentally, of everything that's happened of late,” Biden said.
Biden noted that former President Donald Trump made a deal with the Taliban that if the United States got out service members by May 1 of this year, the Taliban would not attack U.S. troops.
“The reason why there were no attacks on Americans as you said, from the date until I came in office was because the commitment was made by President Trump, ‘I will be out by May 1, in the meantime, you agree not to attack any Americans.’ That was a deal. That's why no American was attacked.”
— Rebecca Morin
Biden said he stands by the decision to pull the military out of Afghanistan after 20 years of occupation in the country even after the deadly Kabul airport terrorist attack.
“Yes, I do.” Biden said in response to a question from a reporter.
Biden said the alternative would have been to send thousands of more troops back into Afghanistan if he did not uphold his predecessor Donald Trump’s agreement to withdraw. He also said the threat of terrorism – the original purpose behind the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan – has now “metastasized around the world.”
“I have never been of the view that we should be sacrificing American lives, to try to establish a democratic government in Afghanistan, a country that has never once in its entire history been a united country,” Biden said.
“Ladies and gentlemen, it was time to end a 20-year war.”
— Joey Garrison
"To the best of my knowledge, in those cases, the bulk of that has occurred, they've been let through," he said. "But I can't tell you with any certitude that there's actually been a list of names...there may have been, but I know of no circumstances."
Biden said that he has ordered officials to complete the mission to evacuate Afghanistan by their Aug. 31 deadline.
“We must complete this mission and we will,” Biden said.
He said that the United States “will not be deterred” by Thursday’s attacks outside the Kabul airport will not deter the mission.
“America will not be intimidated,” he said. “I have the utmost confidence in our brave service members that they’ll continue to execute this mission with courage and honor to save lives and get Americans, our partners, our Afghan allies out of Afghanistan.”
— Rebecca Morin
Twelve U.S. service members were killed Thursday at the Kabul airport after a pair of bombings and a gun attack from the terrorist organization ISIS-K, the Pentagon said at a news conference Thursday afternoon.
The Associated Press reported those killed included 11 Marines and one Navy corpsman.
Gen. Kenneth McKenzie said 15 additional U.S. service members were injured and a “number of Afghan civilians” were also killed or injured. The attacks also killed 60 Afghans.
McKenzie said the bombing on the Abbey Gate at the Kabul airport was followed by “a number of ISIS-gunmen” opening fire on civilians and military forces. He said a second bombing later occurred at the nearby Baron Hotel outside the airport but could not say whether it was a suicide bomb.
A pair of explosions rocked the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul as the U.S. worked to rapidly evacuate American and Afghan civilians before the Aug. 31 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The explosions came after repeated warnings from President Joe Biden about the threat of ISIS-K terrorist attacks as the withdrawal deadline drew nearer. Biden has yet to address the attacks.
“We thought this would happen sooner or later,” McKenzie said. “It’s tragic that it happened today.”
— Joey Garrison
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the “heartbreak” over the deaths of 12 service members at the Kabul airport is further proof that members of Congress should not be making unauthorized trips to the war-torn nation because it “would unnecessarily divert needed resources” from the mission to evacuate remaining Americans.
“It should be clear that any Member presence presents a danger and an opportunity cost of resources, regardless of whatever value that Members consider they may add by such trips,” the California Democrat wrote in a letter to lawmakers that was released Thursday afternoon.
Her warning came a day after two lawmakers - Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., and Rep. Peter Meijer, R-Mich. - flew into Afghanistan without military or legislative authority on a chartered aircraft and were on the ground at the Kabul airport for several hours.
“As Members of Congress, we have a duty to provide oversight on the executive branch,’” the two said in a joint statement following their return Wednesday. “We conducted this visit in secret, speaking about it only after our departure, to minimize the risk and disruption to the people on the ground, and because we were there to gather information, not to grandstand.”
— Ledyard King
The U.S. is in contact with 1,000 Americans who remain in Afghanistan and have heard from 500 additional people “purporting to be Americans in Afghanistan who want to leave,” according to a State Department official.
The number of remaining Americans is down from 1,500 who were there as of Wednesday night Eastern time. The State Department said 500 were evacuated in the past 24 hours. The official said the vast majority – perhaps two-thirds – of the remaining 1,000 American citizens said they were taking steps to leave.
"We believe many, if not most, of these individuals are nearly or already out of the country."
U.S. officials believe many of the additional 500 people who claimed to be American citizens are not.
“We immediately began attempting to reach these individuals by phone, text, and email. Based on our experience, many of these will not turn out to be U.S. citizens in need of our assistance,” the official said.
The Pentagon said it is continuing its missions to evacuate Americans from Afghanistan even after a pair of bombings and gun attack killed at least 12 U.S. service members at the Kabul airport Thursday.
— Joey Garrison
The threat from ISIS-K is "extremely real" and officials have been telegraphing warnings of attacks for several days, Marine Corps Gen. Kenneth McKenzie Jr., commander of U.S. Central command, told reporters Thursday.
He said threat streams are "imminent" and range from rocket attacks to vehicle-borne suicide attacks. U.S. officials are working with the Taliban, who are providing outer security outside the airport compound, to monitor possible attacks.
"We believe that is their desire to continue those attacks and we expect those attacks to continue, and we're doing everything we can to be prepared for those attacks," McKenzie said.
McKenzie also said the U.S. is prepared to take action over the deaths of U.S. service members but officials are still working to determine who's behind the attack.
"If we can find who's associated with this, we will go after them," he said. "We've been clear all along that we're going to retain the right to operate against ISIS in Afghanistan, and we are working very hard right now to determine attribution."
— Courtney Subramanian
McKenzie, during his briefing, alluded to a variety of imminent threats of concern to the U.S. presence at the Kabul airport, including intelligence indicating that a vehicle-borne IED – a truck bomb – could be imminent. It was also one of the threats that the U.S. military was working closely with the Taliban on, to help prevent future attacks.
McKenzie described “very, very real threat streams” that suggested an attack could occur at any moment. He said the airbase had good defenses against suspected rocket attacks that ISIS-K might be planning. ‘We also know they aim to get a suicide or vehicle-borne suicide attack in if they can, from a small vehicle to a large vehicle,” McKenzie said. “They're working all those options.”
Some potential attacks on United States service members were thwarted, based on information provided by the U.S, by the Taliban, he said.
“So in terms of practical things that we're doing, okay, again, we've reached out to the Taliban, we've told them, ‘You need to continue to push out the security parameter,’ “ McKenzie said. “We've identified some roads that we would like for them to close, they've identified that they will be willing to close those roads.”
“As we assess the threat of a suicide borne vehicle threat, it's high right now. So we want to reduce the possibility of one of those vehicles getting close,” McKenzie added. So, with the Taliban’s help, “we're actually moving very aggressively to do that.”
Although the U.S. does not give the Taliban a full range of information, they are given “enough to act and time and space to try to prevent these attacks,” McKenzie said.
— Rebecca Morin and Josh Meyer
Marine Corps Gen. Kenneth McKenzie Jr., commander of U.S. Central command, said evacuations would continue as the U.S. prepares to withdraw from Afghanistan by Aug. 31. He said about 1,000 American citizens remain in Afghanistan at this point.
"Despite this attack, we're continuing the mission, the evacuation of this state,” he said. “While we’re saddened by the loss of life, both U.S. and Afghan, we’re continuing to execute the mission.”
— Joey Garrison and Tom Vandenbrook
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