Biden attends grim homecoming for US troops killed in Kabul

DELAWARE • US President Joe Biden shut his eyes and tilted his head back as the flag-draped cases carrying the remains of 11 American service members killed in a suicide bomb attack in Afghanistan emerged from a military plane at a base in Delaware.

Mr Biden, his wife, Jill, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and senior military officials stood sombrely as US troops carried the cases down the ramp of an air force C-17 aircraft at Dover Air Force Base.

Crying could be heard and a woman collapsed as the remains were loaded into vans for transport to a facility, where they will undergo identification and autopsies.

The 11 were among 13 US troops killed in an Islamic State in Iraq and Syria suicide attack outside Kabul's airport last week, where the United States has been staging a massive airlift of Americans and Afghans for the past two weeks.

At least 170 Afghans were also killed in the attack.

None of the fallen service members was older than 31. Five were just 20, as old as the war itself.

Earlier on Sunday, Mr Biden and his wife met grieving family members of some of the fallen American service members.

The remains of two other US service members killed in the attack are being brought home privately at the request of their families.

Mr Biden, a Democrat, has been criticised by Republicans, who have accused his administration of bungling the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan.

The Taliban's rapid advance across Afghanistan amid the withdrawal of American and allied troops, combined with the chaotic scenes at the airport, have presented him with his biggest foreign policy challenge as President.

Mr Biden has vowed to punish those responsible for the airport bombing.

REUTERS