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President Donald Trump on Monday signed a proclamation commemorating the anniversary of the Abbey Gate attack during the Afghanistan withdrawal that took the lives of 13 military service members.
Trump was surrounded by Gold Star families as he signed the proclamation in the White House.
“We remember these great 13 souls, but we also remember the people that were so badly injured, our soldiers, 32 of them approximately,” he said. “We understand that it should’ve never happened, should have never been allowed to have happened.”
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President Donald Trump, surrounded by family members of military service members killed in Afghanistan at the attack at Abbey Gate, speaks during an event for the signing of a proclamation honoring the fourth anniversary of the attack. (Alex Brandon / AP)
Vice President JD Vance, who served in the Marines, said Monday’s event was a “rectification of a wrong.”
“The fact that the President of the United States lost your loved ones through incompetence, but never acknowledged it in your government, never actually put pen to paper to say we’re grateful for your sacrifice,” he said of former President Joe Biden.
The Biden administration was heavily criticized for the attack and the way the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan was executed.
In 2021, Biden removed U.S. troops from Afghanistan, following up on existing plans from the first Trump administration in 2020 with Taliban leaders to end the war in the region. Thirteen U.S. service members were killed during the withdrawal process from a suicide bombing at Abbey Gate, outside the then-Hamid Karzai International Airport, as the Taliban quickly seized control of Kabul.
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President Donald Trump, surrounded by family members of military service members killed in Afghanistan during the attack at Abbey Gate, holds up a signed proclamation honoring the fourth anniversary of the event, in the Oval Office of the White House. (Alex Brandon / AP)
Biden faced scrutiny after the withdrawal as the Taliban quickly took over Afghanistan again and more than a dozen U.S. service members died supporting evacuation efforts.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Abbey Gate bombing convinced Russian President Vladimir Putin to start his war with Ukraine.
“Because he saw how incompetent our military was under Biden,” he said. “The military needs to answer for what happened in Afghanistan.”
A child wearing a ribbon honoring Cpl. Hunter Lopez, one of the service members killed in Afghanistan during the attack at Abbey Gate, listen as President Donald Trump speaks during an event signing a proclamation honoring the fourth anniversary of the attack. (Alex Brandon / AP)
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Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell, an Afghanistan veteran, is leading a deep dive into what happened at Abbey Gate.
