Two U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster IIs landed Friday at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, carrying injured U.S. troops from the suicide bomb attack in Kabul on Thursday that killed 13.
They were transported to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Army Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor, Joint Staff deputy director for regional operations, said in a press briefing Friday.
On Friday afternoon, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said that 20 service members had been injured by the bombing and evacuated from Afghanistan while several others were treated on site. On Thursday a U.S. Central Command statement had put the total airlifted out of the country at 18.
Routine services at Landstuhl were curtailed Friday to accommodate patients evacuated from Afghanistan, including the troops injured in Thursday's bombing as well as Afghan nationals removed as part of Operation Allies Refuge, a hospital spokesman told Military.com.
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The hospital announced Friday that a number of clinics have canceled appointments through next week, including internal medicine, pediatrics, surgery and surgical clinics, physical therapy and infectious disease.
"Thank you for your patience and cooperation as we work to support the evacuation efforts," officials noted on the Landstuhl Facebook page.
"We continue to provide the best possible medical care to those injured. Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the injured and to the friends and family of those who were killed," Capt. Bill Urban, public affairs officer for U.S. Central Command, said in a statement Thursday night.
Thirteen service members died in the attack, according to the Pentagon, including 11 Marines, a Navy corpsman and one Army soldier. Kirby said on Friday he would leave it to the services to announce their casualties; Marine Corps commandant Gen. Berger issued a statement Thursday saying the Corps was "proud of their service and deeply saddened by their loss."
"These fallen heroes answered the call to go into harm's way to do the honorable work of helping others," Berger said. "As we mourn, we also keep those who are still over there protecting Americans and our Afghan partners at the forefront of our thoughts."
The Corps said it was withholding the names of the deceased for at least 24 hours to ensure that family members were notified.
Taylor said Friday that more than 5,000 U.S. service members are in Kabul to continue evacuation operations.
Editor's Note: On Friday afternoon Pentagon spokesman John Kirby provided an update on the total number of injured service members flown to Germany, as well as more details on those who lost their lives. This story has been updated accordingly.
-- Patricia Kime can be reached at Patricia.Kime@Monster.com. Follow her on Twitter @patriciakime.
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