Pentagon confirms 12 U.S. service members killed in bombing, gunfire attack in Kabul

At a press briefing on Thursday, Marine Gen. Kenneth McKenzie said 12 U.S. service members were killed and 15 other service members were injured after at least two explosions in Kabul.

Video Transcript

KENNETH MCKENZIE: John, Thanks.

It was a hard day today. As you know, two suicide bombers, assessed to have been ISIS fighters, detonated in the vicinity of the Abbey Gate at Hamid Karzai International Airport and in the vicinity of the Baron Hotel, which is immediately adjacent. The attack on the Abbey Gate was followed by a number of ISIS gunmen who opened fire on civilians and military forces.

At this time, we know that 12 US service members have been killed in the attack. And 15 more service members have been injured. A number of Afghan civilians were also killed and injured in the attack. We are treating some of them aboard HKIA. Many other Afghan civilians have been taken out to hospitals in town. We're still working to calculate the total losses. We just don't know what that is right now.

Their loss weighs heavily on us all. And I'll talk a little bit more about that as we go through my prepared remarks.

We continue to focus on the protection of our forces and the evacuees as the evacuation continues. Let me be clear, while we're saddened by the loss of life, both US and Afghan, we're continuing to execute the mission. Our mission is to evacuate US citizens, third-country nationals, special immigrant visa holders, US embassy staff, and Afghans at risk.

Despite this attack, we are continuing the mission, the evacuation, at best speed. And as of today, we have approximately 5,000 evacuees on the ramp at HKIA awaiting airlift. Since August the 14th, we've evacuated more than 104,000 civilians from HKIA, over 66,000 by the United States and over 37,000 by our allies and partners. And that includes bringing out about 5,000 Americans.

As the secretary of state said yesterday, we believe that there are about 1,000, probably a little more than 1,000 American citizens left in Afghanistan at this point. We're doing everything we can in concert with our Department of State partners to reach out to them and to help them leave if they want to leave. And remember, not everybody wants to leave.

Yesterday, we brought in over 500 American citizens. It would be difficult to overestimate the number of unusual challenges and competing demands that our forces on the ground have faced. The threat to our forces, particularly from ISIS-K is very real, as we have seen today.

I would also like to express the sense of profound pride I have in the creative, determined, and professional way that our forces have overcome those challenges and to deliver the results that we talked about in my opening portion of remarks, the number of people that we've been able to extract from Afghanistan. It would also be remiss of me not to mention the tremendous contributions of our many coalition partners. And they stood with us on the ground at HKIA and also the interagency and international partners who supported the evacuation, the many soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, and coast guardsmen who supported this operation downrange across the Central Command, the European Command, and the Northern Command areas of responsibility.

Moreover, this evacuation could simply not have been done without the amazing flexibility of US Transportation Command and the airlift provided by the United States Air Force. No other military in the world is anything like it. I'd also like to thank the host nations that have generously provided access to their facilities for the processing, the care, and the feeding of our evacuees.

I also need to acknowledge the temporary suffering that some of our evacuees have had to endure. Please know that we continue to execute our number one mission, which is to get as many American citizens and other evacuees as possible out of Afghanistan.

We also continue to expand the capacity at our intermediate facilities to ensure safe, sanitary, and humane conditions for evacuees while continuing to look for ultimate ways to expedite their processing and ultimate transfer to the United States or other destinations.

I'd like to close out my remarks today by just taking a moment to describe the heroism that our marines, soldiers, and sailors are exhibiting as they screen the people who are coming onto the airfield. This is close-up work. The breath of the person you are searching is upon you. While we have overwatch in place, we still have to touch the clothes of the person that's coming in. I think you all can appreciate the courage and the dedication that is necessary to do this job and to do it time after time. Please remember that we have screened over 104,000 people.

Finally, I'd like to offer my profound condolences to the families of our servicemen and women and Afghan civilians who lost their lives today. We have put more than 5,000 US service members at risk to save as many civilians as we can. It's a noble mission. And today, we have seen firsthand how dangerous that mission is.

ISIS will not deter us from accomplishing the mission. I can assure you of that. All Americans can and should be proud of the men and women of the armed forces who are facing these dangers head-on with their international partners and all our other friends that are with us. And we appreciate your thoughts and prayers for all our service members who are carrying on this mission today.