President Joe Biden is under fire after appearing to look at his watch just seconds after a salute honoring the return of the 13 US se...
President Joe Biden is under fire after appearing to look at his watch just seconds after a salute honoring the return of the 13 US servicemembers killed in Thursday's ISIS-K suicide bombing in Kabul.
The president made the unannounced trip to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Sunday morning as the caskets of the 13 service members killed in the attack were brought back to the United States.
He stood in silence, his right hand to his chest, as a succession of flag draped transfer coffins were carried past him from a C-17 Globemaster plane.
But during the ceremony, Biden appears to jerk his left arm up and look down at his watch, which sparked backlash from veterans and conservative commentators.
The 13 killed on Thursday were Navy corpsman Max Soviak, Army Staff Sergeant Ryan Knauss, and Marines Hunter Lopez, Rylee McCollum, David Lee Espinoza, Kareem Nikoui, Jared Schmitz, Daegan Page, Taylor Hoover, Humberto Sanchez, Johanny Rosario, Dylan Merola and Nicole Gee.
Their remains arrived at Dover Air Force Base, at 8am for a 'dignified transfer,' the solemn moment when fallen troops return to American soil.
Biden's apparent checking of his watch sparked fury among veterans, Republican politicians and commenters online.
'Looks like he was being inconvenienced by having to show some respect for these American Heroes [sic],' wrote Desert Storm Army veteran Samuel Williams.
Submarine veteran J Larry Hanna wrote: 'Biden, as the caskets passed before him, had to glance at his watch. Does he have something more important?'
Another veteran wrote: 'After a fallen soldier goes by, Biden shows his true incredibly disrespectful soul, he checks his watch as if he has somewhere else to be. I’m so mad, this is personal slap to all veterans and active duty.'
Republicans also leapt to criticize the president.
Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson, a retired Navy rear admiral, tweeted: 'Apparently our Commander-in-Chief has better things to do than honor the 13 service members who died on his watch? I’m DISGUSTED! God bless these heroes and their loved ones. They deserved better.'
Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said: 'Many of us remember Pres Bush 41 checking his watch during a debate and how awful it looked (even though we all felt same way about that debate.) But this is shocking and will be remembered.'
President Joe Biden is under fire for appearing to look at his watch during Sunday's 'dignified transfer' onto American soil of the 13 American troops killed in Thursday's Kabul suicide bomb attack
President Joe Biden attended on Sunday the dignified transfer of the remains of service members killed in the Kabul airport attack
Pictured: U.S. President Joe Biden arrives at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, U.S., August 29, 2021
The US Marine Corps posted a photo to Twitter Sunday evening, of the flag flag-draped caskets of their fallen brethren killed in Thursday's suicide bomb attack in Kabul
'Did Joe Biden just check his watch? All of this avoidable death boring you, Joe?' Ian Haworth, an editor for the Daily Wire tweeted.
'There is nothing more important than paying your respects to America's fallen war heroes, Mr. President,' chided Nile Gardiner, a foreign policy analyst and former aide to Margaret Thatcher.
'@joebiden checking his watch during the dignified transfer of American Heroes killed by his incompetence. Despicable. Resign now,' tweeted Boris Epshteyn, a former special assistant to President Donald Trump.
'Our leaders are mindless and weak, tempting our enemies, this is among the saddest periods in US history,' former Fox News commentator, Lou Dobbs tweeted.
On Monday morning, as many as five rockets were fired at Kabul airport, with some being intercepted by the C-RAM missile defense system. An official said initial reports did not indicate any U.S. casualties, but that information could change. It wasn't immediately clear who launched them.
The incident came as it was revealed three children were killed in a US drone strike targeting 'multiple suicide bombers' planning an attack on the Hamid Karzai International airport - just hours after Biden warned of the possibility of another attack following last week's that killed 170, including 13 U.S. personnel.
Witnesses said the a strike blew up two cars parked outside a residential building near the airport to the north of Afghanistan's capital. It is believed the vehicles were going to be used in an 'imminent' attack by ISIS-K militants.
Smoke could be seen rising near the airport today, and the sound of the airport's missile defense system could be heard by local residents, some of whom also reported seeing rockets exploding in the air and shrapnel falling into the street - suggesting at least one rocket had been intercepted.
However, rockets appeared to strike Kabul's Salim Karwan neighborhood on Monday, witnesses told the Associated Press. Gunfire immediately followed the explosions, but it wasn't immediately clear who was firing.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement: 'National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Chief of Staff Ron Klain have briefed the President on the rocket attack at Hamid Karzai International Airport.
'The President was informed that operations continue uninterrupted at HKIA, and has reconfirmed his order that commanders redouble their efforts to prioritize doing whatever is necessary to protect our forces on the ground.'
Biden's seeming distraction at the solemn event drew the ire of conservatives and veterans on social media Sunday
The president stood with his hand over his heart as remains were carried in a flag-draped casket by service members at the Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware on Sunday
The president and first lady Jill Biden departed for Dover Air Force Base on Sunday to meet with families and receive the remains of the 13 U.S. troops who died in the Kabul airport attack and receive the remains
The president saluted at the top of the stairs before boarding Air Force One on Sunday morning
Some 300 American citizens are still waiting to be evacuated from Afghanistan, Secretary of State Andrew Blinken revealed, as he warned that 'this is the most dangerous time in an already extraordinarily dangerous mission'.
The withdrawal of US forces allowed the Taliban to regain power after an almost 20-year war. The President's allies at home and abroad have openly accused Mr Biden of blindsiding them with his rush to exit by August 31 and slammed his bungled handling of the crisis.
Biden and the first lady spent the first part of the morning meeting privately with the families of the fallen.
He then walked with other dignitaries - including the first lady, the Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, and the heads of the military - across the air base apron and up the ramp of the C-17.
Inside they spent a minute in prayer, before emerging and taking up their positions beside the plane to watch the bodies being removed.
Relatives of the fallen were hidden from view behind a line of buses. Their presence became obvious as the second flag-draped transfer case emerged from the plane to the sound of anguished howling.
Even though the proceedings were outside, everyone present wore masks.
Some families of the fallen troops have blasted the president, saying he had unnecessarily put them in harm's way.
On Friday, Kathy McCollum, the mother of a Marine killed in the attack called Biden a 'dementia-ridden piece of crap.'
'My son was one of the Marines that died yesterday,' Kathy McCollum said in a radio interview on Friday of her 20-year-old late son Rylee.
'[He was] getting ready to come home from freaking Jordan to be with his wife to watch the birth of his son,' McCollum said. 'And that feckless, dementia ridden piece of crap just sent my son to die.'
'I woke up at four'o'clock this morning to Marines at my door telling me my son was dead,' she said in the emotional account.
Days before that, Kathy McCollum called Biden a 'b***h' for talking about 'diplomatic crap with Taliban terrorists who just freaking blew up my son' rather than apologizing for 'failing' his troops.
'My son is gone, and I just want all you Democrats who cheated in the election, or who voted for him legitimately, you just killed my son,' she said. 'With a dementia ridden piece of crap who doesn't even know he's in the White House who still thinks he's a senator.'
The death toll was the highest for any single incident since 2011 and Biden has been accused by some of the troops' families of putting them in harm's way.
In a statement on Saturday, Biden said: 'The 13 service members that we lost were heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice in service of our highest American ideals and while saving the lives of others.'
'Their bravery and selflessness has enabled more than 117,000 people at risk to reach safety thus far. May God protect our troops and all those standing watch in these dangerous days.'
Their deaths, as they protected an airlift of Americans and vulnerable Afghans, brought into stark focus the risks of ending the U.S. war in Afghanistan and the potential political cost to Biden.
The withdrawal of U.S. forces allowed the Taliban to regain power, after an almost 20-year war and the cost of 2,400 American military lives.
International allies have openly accused the president of blindsiding them with his rush to exit by August 31.
And his handling of the crisis - blaming Afghan troops for failing to fight the Taliban and his predecessor's peace deal with the enemy - triggered withering criticism from all sides at home.
On Sunday, he faced the most difficult part of his decision, watching for himself as 13 transfer cases were due to arrive at Dover.
The president and first lady board Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland for Dover AFB where they will meet with families of the fallen
Left to right: Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Darin T. Hoover, Army Staff Sgt. Ryan C. Knauss, Marine Corps Sgt. Nicole L. Gee, Marine Corps Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo
Marines Corps Corporals left to right: Daegan W. Page, Hunter Lopez, Humberto A. Sanchez
Marine Corps Lance Corporals left to right: Kareem M. Nikoui, Dylan R. Merola, Rylee J. McCollum, Jared M. Schmitz
Marine Corps Lance Cpl. David L. Espinoza (left) and Navy Hospitalman Maxton W. Soviak (right)
The remains were transported and unloaded from a C-17 Globemaster plane
Biden is under intense pressure for his decision to withdraw from Afghanistan and for his administration's handling of a difficult and dangerous evacuation from Kabul airport
Former Marine Brian Abelli walks past a wreath after placing a rose at the Massachusetts Fallen Heroes Memorial on Saturday. A ceremony was held to honor the U.S. service members killed in a suicide bombing at the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan
The Pentagon's policy is to return America's fallen troops to their loved ones as quickly as possible.
Once the aircraft lands at Dover AFB, service-specific carry teams remove the transfer cases individually from the aircraft and move them to an waiting vehicle, according to information from Dover's office of Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations.
The vehicles then transport the fallen to the mortuary facility at Dover for positive identification by the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System and preparation for transport to their final resting place.
The transfer event, which the military does not consider a ceremony but rather a 'a solemn movement of the transfer case', can be open to the press for photography and video at the discretion of the fallen troop's family.
The White House has been forced to defend the withdrawal, saying it was time to end the country's forever war.'
Biden himself said on Thursday: 'Imagine where we'd be if I had indicated, on May the 1st, I was not going to renegotiate an evacuation date; we were going to stay there.
'I'd have only one alternative: Pour thousands of more troops back into Afghanistan to fight a war that we had already won, relative [to] the reason we went in the first place.'
But others said it was never a choice between ramping up or leaving.
A senior European diplomat, who had spent the week trying to get people out of Kabul but was not authorized to speak publicly, offered a blunt assessment.
'I'm afraid the key question is would 13 American troops have died if you'd just left 2500 doing a stabilising job.
'We can never do a counter factual but the honest answer is no. You messed up.'
Biden has also been criticized by some of the families.
Nikoui's father Steve told The Daily Beast on Friday: 'They sent my son over there as a paper pusher and then had the Taliban outside providing security.
'I blame my own military leaders… Biden turned his back on him. That's it.'
On Saturday, the president warned that another terror attack was 'highly likely.' And Americans were told to avoid the airport once again.
The Pentagon said the remaining deployment of forces at the airport had begun their final withdrawal ahead of Biden's deadline for ending the evacuation on Tuesday.
It also said a drone strike had killed a planner and a 'facilitator' of ISIS-K plots, but declined to name them.
'They lost a planner and they lost a facilitator and got one wounded. The fact that two of these individuals are no longer walking on the face of the Earth, that's a good thing,' said Pentagon spokesman John Kirby.
On Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will host a virtual meeting to discuss a coordinated approach for the days ahead, as the U.S. completes its withdrawal from Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover of the country.
The meeting will also include Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, Turkey, the European Union and NATO.
Pictured: President Richard Nixon looks at his watch and at the same time shakes hands with Belgians near the royal palace in Brussels, where he attended a luncheon with King Baudouin of Belgium (file photo, June 1974)
Speaking on the Monday rocket launches, a witness - who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals - said they heard the sound of three explosions and then saw a flash, like fire, in the sky and that people fled after the blasts.
Videos posted after the rocket attacks appear to show fires burning on a street in Kabul, though it was not immediately clear if they had been caused by the rockets.
Other photos appear to show the car that had reportedly fired the rockets burned and damaged while Taliban fighters stood guard of it in Lab-e Jar. Photos of the vehicle appear to show some sort of piping in the rear passenger seats.
U.S. military cargo planes continued evacuations at the airport after the rocket fire.
A Taliban spokesman said that a car bomb destined for the airport had been destroyed - and that a possible second strike had hit a nearby house on Sunday.
DailyMail.com has reached out to the State Department for more information and additional comment about the rocket attacks.
President Joe Biden has set a deadline of Tuesday to withdraw all US forces from Afghanistan, drawing to a close his nation's longest military conflict, which began in retaliation for the September 11 attacks.
Smoke and a car fire are seen after rockets were fired at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, and intercepted by missile defense systems early in the morning on Monday. Caption: The area from where the rockets were lunched on #kabulairport
Taliban fighters stand guard near a damaged car (not pictured) after multiple rockets were fired in Kabul on Monday
Damage and a car fire are seen after rockets were fired at the Hamid Karzai International Airport and intercepted by missile defense systems early in the morning on Monday
Taliban fighters investigate a damaged car after multiple rockets were fired in Kabul on Monday
A Taliban spokesman said that a car bomb destined for the airport had been destroyed
The rear of the car is seen as Taliban fighters stand guard after multiple rockets were fired in Kabul on Monday
A Taliban fighter stands guard near a damaged car after multiple rockets were fired in Kabul on Monday
The return of the hardline Islamist Taliban movement, which was toppled in 2001 but took back power a fortnight ago, triggered an exodus of terrified people aboard US-led evacuation flights.
Those flights, which took more than 114,000 people out of Kabul airport, will officially end on Tuesday when the last of the thousands of American troops pull out.
But US forces are now focused chiefly on flying themselves and American diplomats out safely.
The Islamic State group, rivals of the Taliban, pose the biggest threat to the withdrawal after carrying out a suicide bomb attack at the airport late last week that claimed more 170 lives, including those of 13 US troops.
Biden had warned more attacks were highly likely and the United States said it carried out an air strike on Sunday night in Kabul on an explosives-laden vehicle.
American officials said that a U.S. drone strike blew up a vehicle carrying 'multiple suicide bombers.' An Afghan official said three children were killed in the strike.
The United States has been accused of killing many civilians in air strikes throughout the war, one reason for losing local support.
Afghans hoping to leave Taliban-controlled Afghanistan queue at the main entrance gate of Kabul airport
A satellite photo shows Kabul's international airport as an evacuation flight taxis to the military side of the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan on Thursday
'We are aware of reports of civilian casualties following our strike on a vehicle in Kabul today,' Captain Bill Urban, a US Central Command spokesman, said in a statement.
Urban said the US military was investigating whether civilians were killed, noting there were 'powerful' explosions that resulted from the destruction of the vehicle.
'We would be deeply saddened by any potential loss of innocent life,' he said.
The strike on the vehicles, filled with explosives, is believed to have caused a secondary blast, killing and wounding several civilians.
An Afghan official, speaking on condition of anonymity out of security concerns, said that three children were among the dead. It is not known where the children killed in the incident were at the time of the explosion.
The death toll is expected to rise with Afghan TV presenter Muslim Shirzad reporting that as many as six children were dead and nine people in total, including an interpreter who had worked with US troops, and an Afghan army officer due to get married tomorrow.
The Taliban said it welcomed the drone strike in an apparent sign of uneasy co-operation on security around the airport.
Two unnamed US officials earlier confirmed to Reuters that American forces had launched a successful strike in the capital city targeting suspected ISIS-K militants.
Dina Mohammadi said her extended family were in the building and that several of them had been killed, including children.
Ahmaduddin, a neighbour, said he had collected the bodies of children after the strike, which set off more explosions inside the house.
There were earlier reports of a possible separate incident in which it was claimed a child had been killed in a rocket strike on a house near to the airport. It has since emerged this is the same event.
A security official from the recently deposed government told AFP a house was struck while a source at the Afghan Ministry of Health separately told the BBC the blast was near the airport, with two witnesses informing Reuters a house north of the airport was struck by a rocket.
There was no official confirmation and no terrorist group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. A US official told CBS: 'We are confident we hit the target we were aiming for. Initial reports indicate there were no civilian casualties.'
The official added that the drone strike caused 'significant secondary explosions' indicating the presence of a substantial amount of explosive material in the vehicle.
Biden had previously warned another terror attack on the airport was imminent after an attack at Kabul airport carried out by ISIS-K - an Islamic extremist group operating in the Central Asian country - killed 13 American service personnel and scores of Afghans.
Smoke rises after an explosion in Kabul, Afghanistan on Sunday, August 29, 2021
A destroyed vehicle is seen inside a house after a U.S. drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Sunday
Army Major Gen. William D. 'Hank' Taylor said at a Pentagon briefing on Saturday that two ISIS-K targets had been killed and one wounded in the drone strike in Afghanistan
The Pentagon said a US drone mission in eastern Afghanistan killed two members of the so-called Islamic State group's Afghanistan affiliate early on Saturday in retaliation for the airport bombing, and Mr Biden said the extremists can expect more.
In a statement on Saturday, Mr Biden said: 'The 13 service members that we lost were heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice in service of our highest American ideals and while saving the lives of others.
'Their bravery and selflessness has enabled more than 117,000 people at risk to reach safety thus far. May God protect our troops and all those standing watch in these dangerous days.'
The evacuation of Americans proceeded as tensions rose over the prospect of another IS attack. The State Department issued a new security alert early on Sunday instructing people to leave the airport area immediately 'due to a specific, credible threat'.
Sullivan pledged the US 'will make sure there is safe passage for any American citizen, any legal permanent resident' after Tuesday, as well as for 'those Afghans who helped us'.
He said the US would continue strikes against IS and consider 'other operations to go after these guys, to get them and to take them off the battlefield'.
He added: 'We will continue to bring the fight to the terrorists in Afghanistan to make sure they do not represent a threat to the United States.'
The administration's plan 'is not to have an ongoing embassy presence in Afghanistan', Mr Sullivan said.
'But we will have means and mechanisms of having diplomats on the ground there, be able to continue to process out these applicants, be able to facilitate the passage of other people who want to leave Afghanistan.'
The US Embassy said: 'Due to a specific, credible threat, all U.S. citizens in the vicinity of Kabul airport (HKIA), including the South (Airport Circle) gate, the new Ministry of the Interior and the gate near the Panjshir Petrol station on the northwest side of the airport, should leave the airport area immediately.'
Before the warning was issued, Mr Biden vowed that his revenge strike for the terror attack is 'not the last' and added that the 'situation on the ground continues to be extremely dangerous.'
In recent years, the Islamic State's Afghanistan-Pakistan chapter has been responsible for some of the deadliest attacks in those countries.
They have massacred civilians at mosques, public squares, schools, and even hospitals.
While both IS and the Taliban are hardline Sunni Islamists, they are bitter foes - with each claiming to be the true flag-bearers of jihad.
Afghan refugees, fleeing the Afghan capital Kabul, walk on the tarmac after disembarking from an US Air Force plane upon their arrival at Pristina International airport near Pristina, Kosovo on Sunday
U.S. Marines honor their fallen service members killed in action during a ramp ceremony at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Friday
Last week's suicide bombing at the airport led to the worst single-day death toll for the US military in Afghanistan since 2011.
The IS threat has forced the US military and the Taliban to co-operate in ensuring security at the airport in a way unthinkable just weeks ago.
On Saturday, Taliban fighters escorted a steady stream of Afghans from buses to the main passenger terminal, handing them over to US forces for evacuation.
The Taliban have promised a softer brand of rule compared with their first stint in power, which the US military ended because they gave sanctuary to Al-Qaeda.
But many Afghans fear a repeat of the Taliban's brutal interpretation of Islamic law, as well as violent retribution for working with foreign militaries, Western missions or the previous US-backed government.
Western allies have warned many thousands of at-risk Afghans have not been able to get on the evacuation flights.
On Sunday, the Taliban revealed their supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada was in southern Afghanistan and planning to make a public appearance.
'He is present in Kandahar. He has been living there from the very beginning,' said Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid. 'He will soon appear in public,' added deputy spokesman Bilal Karimi of the leader, whose whereabouts have remained largely unknown.
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