Biden administration marks three years since ISIS suicide bombing at Abbey Gate in Afghanistan

U.S. President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin marked the third anniversary on Monday of the suicide bombing at Abbey Gate, near Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Aug. 26, 2021, which killed 13 U.S. service members and about 170 Afghani civilians.

Biden called the attack “deliberate evil.”

“These 13 Americans—and the many more that were wounded—were patriots in the highest sense. Some were born the year the war in Afghanistan started. Some were on their second or third tour,” Biden said. “All raised their hand to serve a cause greater than themselves—risking their own safety for the safety of their fellow Americans, allies and Afghan partners.”

Those who lost their lives during the evacuation of U.S. forces from Afghanistan “embodied the very best of who we are as a nation: brave, committed, selfless,” Biden said. “We owe them and their families a sacred debt we will never be able to fully repay but will never cease working to fulfill.”

“Today, our longest war is over, but our commitment to preventing attacks on our homeland—or our people—never will be,” the president added. “We will continue to disrupt terrorist activity, wherever we find it. We will continue to deliver justice to terrorists who plot against America—just as we have over the last three years with the leader of Al-Qaeda and the global leader of ISIS, and we will do so without deploying thousands of American troops to ground wars overseas.”

“As I have said, President Biden made the courageous and right decision to end America’s longest war,” Harris said. “Over the past three years, our administration has demonstrated we can still eliminate terrorists, including the leaders of Al-Qaeda and ISIS, without troops deployed into combat zones. I will never hesitate to take whatever action necessary to counter terrorist threats and protect the American people and the homeland.”

Austin said “we will never forget these 13 brave Americans—11 Marines, a soldier and a sailor—who lost their lives defending their teammates and helping to save tens of thousands of Afghans seeking freedom and the opportunity for a better life.”

“Another year has passed, but our gratitude will never wane,” he added.

During his televised debate with former President Donald Trump in June, U.S. President Joe Biden stated that “the truth is, I’m the only president this century that doesn’t have any—this—this decade—doesn’t have any troops dying anywhere in the world, like he did.”

A reporter asked Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, during a July 3 White House press conference about Biden’s claim in light of the 13 service members who died at Abbey Gate, “and then, this year, three U.S. service members died in a drone attack in Jordan.”

“And yet, the president said, quote, he’s the ‘only president this century, this decade that doesn’t have any troops dying anywhere in the world like he did.’ End quote,” the reporter said. “I get having a bad night. But how did the president get that so wrong?”

“So, I appreciate the question. I really do,” Jean-Pierre said, per an official White House transcript. “Look, the president cares deeply about our service members—he does—and their families, their immense sacrifices that they’ve made to take on the pr—and—and he takes on his responsibility as the commander-in-chief, and that is something that certainly he will continue to do.”

“The president was making a comparison between how many service members have died under his leadership versus in previous years,” she added. “That’s what—the comparison that he was making, and he is doing—doing—he was doing that because he cares so deeply—cares so deeply about them and their families and wants to keep troops safe, and that’s what he certainly wants to continue to do.”

During the debate, Biden also said of Trump, “when he was president, they were still killing people in Afghanistan. He didn’t do anything about that.”

Trump responded, “As far as Afghanistan is concerned, I was getting out of Afghanistan, but we were getting out with dignity, with strength, with power. He got out, it was the most embarrassing day in the history of our country’s life.”

On Monday, Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social that it is “the third anniversary of the botched Afghanistan withdrawal, the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country.”

“Gross incompetence—13 dead American soldiers, hundreds of people wounded and dead, Americans and billions of dollars of military equipment left behind,” Trump stated. “You don’t take our soldiers out first, you take them out last, when all else is successfully done.”

“Russia then invaded Ukraine, Israel was attacked and the United States became, and is, a laughing stock all over the world,” Trump added.