US releases names of all 13 troops killed in Kabul airport attack

The attacks also killed an estimated 170 Afghans

The Defense Department has released the identities of all 13 American service members who were killed in a pair of attacks at the Kabul airport on Thursday.

The deceased are as follows: Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum, 20 of Jackson, Wyoming; Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, 20, of Wentzville, Missouri; Marine Corps Lance Cpl. David Espinoza, 20, of Rio Bravo, Texas; Navy Hospital Corpsman Max Soviak, of Berlin Heights, Ohio; Marine Corps Cpl. Hunter Lopez, 22, of Indio, California; Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, 20, of Norco, California; Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover, 31, of Utah; Marine Corps Cpl. Daegan William-Tyeler Page, 23, of Omaha, Nebraska; Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss, 23, of Knoxville, Tennessee; Marine Corps Sgt. Johanny Rosario, 25, of Lawrence, Massachusetts; Marine Corps Cpl. Humberto Sanchez, 22, of Logansport, Indiana; Marine Corps Sgt. Nicole Gee, 23, of Roseville, California; and Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Dylan R. Merola, 20, of Rancho Cucamonga, California.

The suicide bomb attack killed an estimated 170 Afghans. It was the deadliest enemy action against US forces in the country in a decade, when the downing of a US Chinook helicopter in 2011 killed 30.

The remains of the fallen service members are currently on their way to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

Rylee McCollum, 20, of Jackson, Wymoing, was a baby during 9/11 and the subsequent invasion of Afghanistan. He deployed not long after getting married in February, and was expecting his first child. His sister Roice McCollum told The Washington Post the young man had long dreamed of serving in the military.

“We knew he was where he wanted to be: serving his country. And that brings a little bit of peace and comfort,” she said. “He signed up the day he turned 18. That was his plan his whole life.”

Flags flew at half staff in Utah in honour of Taylor Hoover, 31, a Marine Corps staff sergeant from the state who was among those killed in the attack.

Other Marines who served with him reached out to his father, Darin Hoover, and said the sergeant was “one heck of a leader.”

"He gave his life protecting those that can’t protect themselves, doing what he loved:  serving his country," Mr Hoover told USA Today of his son.

Others, like the father of Kareem Nikoui, of Norco, California, criticised US leaders for putting the 13 troops in harm’s way.

“They sent my son over there as a paper pusher and then had the Taliban outside providing security,” Steve Nikoui told The Daily Beast. “I blame my own military leaders… Biden turned his back on him. That’s it.”

Islamic State Khorasan (Isis-K), the Isis affiliate in Afghanistan, claimed responsibility for Thursday’s attacks.

On Friday, the US killed an individual it said was an Isis-K “planner” in a reprisal strike with an unmanned combat drone.