DMV veterans, residents react to deadly attacks in Kabul

Tonight, veterans and residents in the DMV visited the Iwo Jima Memorial in Arlington that honors Marines who’ve sacrificed their lives, and many were thinking of the 13 service members who did just that in Kabul where two suicide bombers and gunmen attacked Thursday.

ARLINGTON, Va. (FOX 5 DC) - Tonight, veterans and residents in the DMV visited the Iwo Jima Memorial in Arlington that honors Marines who’ve sacrificed their lives, and many were thinking of the 13 service members who did just that in Kabul where two suicide bombers and gunmen attacked Thursday.

Most of the U.S. military members killed were Marines as well as at least one sailor. They have not yet been identified.

"Probably at least most of them, many of them their families, have not been notified yet and think about what it’s like to be them hearing this news today and just in the dark about, was it their son or their daughter that was killed? And at some point they’re going to get a knock on the door," said Tom Porter with the group Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

Porter, a Navy veteran who served in Afghanistan, is urging people to keep those Gold Star families in your prayers tonight.

There were also dozens of Afghans killed in this ISIS attack.

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"I actually spent a year at that exact location, at that airport. It’s where I lived for a year, so it really hits close to home when I see all that happen," Porter said.

The tragic event has put eyes on President Joe Biden with some criticizing what they say was poor planning of the U.S. pullout, the evacuation, and his deadline of ending the operation on Aug. 31.

"I think the way troops were pulled away from Afghanistan was a mistake obviously because Marines that have lost their lives," another visitor to the memorial told FOX 5’s Lindsay Watts.

The uncertainty following the attack can be felt all around, especially for military families across the country and right here in the DMV.

"We’ve sacrificed so much and it just shows that I guess we should’ve done this evacuation probably a little bit better than what happened," another visitor said. "Now as a student in International Politics and History, I’m a little worried about what’s going to happen next. Will we stay? Will we go?"

FOX 5’s Lindsay Watts also talked by phone to a Virginia woman whose husband was at the Kabul airport when the bombs went off, he was not hurt.

The Taliban has pledged not to attack Western forces during the evacuation, but insist the foreign troops must be out by the Aug. 31 deadline. Now, the country is left waiting to see what comes next.