US knew blast was imminent

Failure to secure airport

The US government had advance notice and could have avoided last week’s airport bombing that killed 13 US service members, according to a new report — as some relatives of the victims bared fury at President Biden for his Afghanistan exit strategy and his conduct at a ceremony honoring the fallen.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby on Monday slammed an “unlawful” leak to Politico revealing that the deaths of US troops in last week’s Kabul airport bombing could have been averted, as the Pentagon was aware hours in advance of an imminent “mass casualty” attack.

Kirby was asked at a press briefing about the report, which says the US knew the approximate time and location of the bombing that on Thursday struck the airport’s Abbey Gate — but that a plan to close the entry to protect US troops was abandoned.

“I am absolutely not going to speak to a press story that was informed by the unlawful disclosure of classified information and sensitive deliberations here at the Pentagon — just not going to do it,” Kirby said.

Politico reported that the US military knew that Abbey Gate was the likely target and in the early morning hours of Thursday developed a plan to close the gate Thursday afternoon. But the gate was

instead left open to allow a British operation to evacuate people from the nearby Baron Hotel. The bomb exploded around 6 p.m., killing nearly 200 people in total.

Some family members of the US victims have slammed Biden’s chaotic withdrawal of US troops from Kabul after 20 years of war — with the evacuation ending despite reports of US citizens left behind.

Kathy McCollum, the mother of 20-year-old US Marine Rylee McCollum, who was killed in the bombing, said Friday in a SiriusXM interview with conservative talk-radio host Andrew Wilkow that people who voted for Biden “just killed my son,” — calling the president a “dementia-ridden piece of crap who doesn’t even know he’s in the White House.”

Meanwhile, the slain soldier’s wife, Jiennah McCollum, told the Washington Post she was upset by a meeting with Biden on Sunday, saying he had “total disregard for the loss of our Marine.”