Photos: Biden attends grim homecoming for U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan attack

US President Joe Biden and other officials attend the dignified transfer of the remains of fallen service members at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware, after 13 US military members were killed in Afghanistan last week. President Joe Biden prepared Sunday at a US military base to receive the remains of the 13 American service members killed in Kabul. This solemn ritual comes amid fierce criticism of his handling of the Afghanistan crisis. Biden and his wife, Jill, wearing black and black face masks, first met far from the cameras with members in a special family centre at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

U.S. 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 on Sunday from a military plane at a base in Delaware.

U.S. Marines honour their fallen service members killed in action. The 11 service members were among 13 U.S. troops killed in an Islamic State suicide attack on Thursday outside Kabul's airport. The United States has been staging a massive airlift of Americans and Afghans during the past two weeks. Scores of Afghans were also killed in the attack.

U.S. Marines react during a Ramp Ceremony for service members killed during operations at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Thursday's attack, which was claimed by ISIS-K, the Afghan affiliate of the Islamic State, was the most lethal incident for U.S. service members in Afghanistan in a decade.

Flag-draped transfer cases of U.S. military service members killed by an August 26 suicide bombing at Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport line inside a C-17 Globemaster II before a dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, U.S.

A man with a flag walks by a photograph of U.S. Marine Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover at the Utah State Capitol for a memorial service in Salt Lake City, Utah. Hoover was one of the 13 U.S. service members killed on August 26, 2021, in a terrorist attack at the Kabul airport.

None of the fallen service members was over 31, and five were just 20, as old as the war itself.

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

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

U.S. President Joe Biden hands challenge coins to members of the U.S. Marine Corps Honor Guard before boarding Air Force One at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware, U.S.

People hold candles at the Utah State Capitol during a memorial service for Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover.

Biden, a Democrat, has been criticized by Republicans, who have accused his administration of bungling the Aug. 31 withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan after a two-decade war in the South Asian nation.