Joe Biden traveled to Dover Air Base to receive the remains of 13 soldiers killed in Kabul

US President Joe Biden is on his way to Dover Air Force Base, Delaware to receive the remains of the 13 soldiers killed in Kabul airport attack on Thursday, claimed by the Islamic State and in which more than 170 people lost their lives.

The White House announced a change in the president’s agenda on Sunday morning and said he was already on his way to Dover, where he and first lady Jill Biden also plan to meet behind closed doors with the families of the deceased soldiers. .

Biden and the first lady are both dressed in black, according to the group of reporters who still accompany the US president.

Dover Air Force Base (Delaware) is responsible for receiving the mortal remains of American soldiers who died abroad in the course of their mission.

The mortal remains usually arrive in a coffin wrapped in American flag, which is transported by members of the Armed Forces from the aircraft to a hearse, in the presence of relatives of the deceased.

The ceremony takes place in silence, and normally all you hear are the prayers of a priest.

Those killed in the Kabul bombing were between 20 and 31 years old, although most of them are in their 20s, the Pentagon revealed on Saturday.

Among those killed was a 20-year-old sailor from Wyoming who he was going to be a father in three weeks.

THE VICTIMS

Suicide bomber detonated explosives at the gate of Kabul airport, where US troops were looking for evacuees who were rushing out of the country. At least 18 other soldiers were injured in the attack which killed at least 170 people and all 13 US service members. The attack was the deadliest against US forces in Afghanistan since August 2011, when militants shot down a Chinook helicopter, killing 30 US soldiers on board.

Many of the soldiers killed were in their infancy in 2001, the year the 9/11 terrorist attacks sparked the United States’ war in Afghanistan, a finishing touch to their lives as the American effort comes to an end.

Marine Corps Senior Corporal Rylee McCollum, 20 years, Jackson, Wyo.

Marine Corps Senior Corporal Jared Schmitz, 20 years, of Wentzville, Missouri.

First Marine Corps Corporal David Espinoza, 20 years, from Rio Bravo, Texas.

The member of the hospital corps of the Navy Max Soviak, of 22 years old, from Berlin Heights, Ohio

Marine Corps Corporal Hunter López, 22 years old, Indio, California.

First Marine Corps Corporal Kareem Nikoui, from 20 years, from Norco, Calif.

Marine Corps Sgt. Taylor Hoover, 31, from Utah

Daegan Marine Corps Corporal William-Tyeler Page, of 23 years, Omaha

Army Sgt Ryan Knauss, 23 years, from Knoxville, Tennessee

Marine Corps Sgt. Johanny Rosario, of 25 years, by Lawrence, Mass.

Marine Corps Corporal Humberto Sánchez, 22 years old, Logansport, Indiana.

Marine Corps Sgt Nicole Gee, 23 years, of Roseville, Calif.

Marine Corps 1st Corporal Dylan R. Merola, of 20 years, from Rancho Cucamonga, California.

LAST POST

A captured Marine Corps sergeant in a photo cooing at a An Afghan baby has been identified as one of 13 U.S. servicemen killed in the Kabul terror attack on Thursday.

“I love my job”Sergeant Nicole Gee, 23, said next to the August 20 photo on her Instagram account, which showed her staring at the baby in her arms.

On August 20, the Ministry of Defense included the photo of Gee holding a baby in a series of images posted on Twitter. With the post, the Pentagon account wrote: “US military service members comfort babies at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan.”

In his latest photo, posted on August 22, Gee can be seen dressed in his military uniform and carrying a rifle, standing near a line of evacuees boarding a military plane to leave Afghanistan. “Escort the evacuees to the bird”, wrote.

Note under development …

(with information from EFE and the Washington Post)

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