The mother of a U.S. service member who was killed in President Joe Biden's botched withdrawal of the U.S. from Afghanistan says that Biden's Pentagon is not being upfront about what actually led to her son's death.
The Gold Star mother - Alicia Lopez - made the remarks during an appearance Friday on CNN's The Lead.
Lopez is the mother of Corporal Hunter Lopez.
Lopez is one of the 13 U.S. service members who were killed during Biden's withdrawal of the U.S. from Afghanistan in August 2021. The service members were killed when a terrorist carried out a suicide bombing at the Kabul airport.
There remain many questions about what exactly happened at the Kabul airport in August of 2021 - about what exactly led to the deaths of the 13 U.S. service members. There have even been claims that the Pentagon could have prevented the bombing.
These claims prompted a response from the Pentagon on Friday. The Pentagon claimed, "We did not have intelligence that identified an individual, by description or otherwise, of the bomber. The preponderance of intelligence indicated a complex attack like a car bomb."
The Pentagon also pushed back against the idea that a U.S. sniper could have taken the bomber out. And, the Pentagon addressed the claim - that, prior to the bombing - it could have carried out a strike on ISIS-K but chose not to.
"According to the commanders in Kabul, there were not any vetted strike targets denied, we just never had that precise intelligence," the Pentagon said.
It added, "It is accurate that we did ask the Taliban to raid or search several areas. They searched some and did not search others."
During her CNN appearance, Lopez was asked to respond to the Pentagon's statement.
"Well, if their statement that they released today is anything like the DOD report that we received at our homes, it’s short of accurate information," Lopez began.
She continued by disputing the Pentagon's remarks, saying:
They failed to speak with people that were there, important people like Sgt. Tyler Vargas, who had the bomber in his sights, and they did not speak with him. There were several Marines that were injured that were not spoken to. So, their statements that they release [are]…incomplete and not correct, and it’s been two years, and so, I don’t really believe them.
Lopez concluded by calling for "true accountability" for the U.S. service members who lost their lives at the Kabul airport in August 2021.
Lopez said:
We’ve requested numerous times to have my son’s property returned to us, that, again, has been ignored. … Just accurate statements of where my child was at the time of the bombing, where he took his last breath, all that, we have no information on any of that.
