US flags to be lowered to half-staff to honor slain troops

U.S. flags will be lowered to half-staff to honor the service members who were killed during attacks at the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan on Thursday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced.

“As a mark for respect, starting today the United States flag will be flown at half-staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations and on all naval vessels of the federal government and the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its territories,” Psaki said.

The flags will be at half-staff until sunset Monday, Psaki added.

.@PressSec Jen Psaki: “As a mark for respect, starting today the United States flag will be flown at half staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds…”

Full video here: https://t.co/27tB07D9Yo pic.twitter.com/Ik0Xf52Qon

— CSPAN (@cspan) August 26, 2021

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has also ordered flags to be flown at half-staff at the U.S. Capitol, according to her deputy chief of staff Drew Hammill.

Speaker Pelosi has ordered the flags at the U.S. Capitol to be flown at half-staff in honor of the U.S. Servicemembers and others killed in the bombings outside the Kabul airport in Afghanistan today.

— Drew Hammill (@Drew_Hammill) August 26, 2021

At least 12 U.S. service members were killed along with at least 60 Afghans in two bombing attacks in Kabul, one at a gate of the city’s airport and another at a nearby hotel.

Marine Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command, said in a press briefing the “working assumption” is that a suicide bomber detonated their device while being searched by the U.S. military at the gate.

President Biden in a speech Thursday afternoon vowed to go after ISIS, which has claimed responsibility for the attacks, while saying that they would not alter his administration’s plans to withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan by Tuesday.

“We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay,” Biden said.