ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A suspected participant in the suicide bombing at the Kabul airport that killed 13 American service members and roughly 170 Afghan civilians during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan arrived in the U.S. on Wednesday to face criminal charges in connection with the attack.
Mohammad Sharifullah was taken into custody over the weekend and admitted during an FBI interrogation to being a member of the Islamic State group's affiliate in Afghanistan and to his role in the August 2021 suicide bombing and other attacks, according to U.S. officials.
President Donald Trump announced the arrest during his Tuesday night address to Congress, telling the audience that he was "pleased to announce that we have just apprehended the top terrorist responsible for that atrocity. And he is right now on his way here to face the swift sword of American justice."
Senior Pakistani intelligence officers on Wednesday confirmed the arrest and said Sharifullah, also known as Jafar, was captured in the country's restive southwest Balochistan province near the border with Afghanistan after multiple operations had failed to seize him.
Sharifullah is charged in federal court in Virginia with providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, resulting in death. He wore a light-blue jail jumpsuit and listened through headphones as an interpreter translated the proceedings. His public defender declined to comment after his court appearance, which ended with him being held until at least a detention hearing set for Monday.
The Abbey Gate bombing, in the waning days of an airlift for those fleeing the Taliban takeover of the country amid the withdrawal by U.S. forces from the country, occurred in August 2021 when a suicide bomber attacked crowds of Afghans flocking to Kabul's airport. Besides 13 U.S. service members, about 170 Afghans were also killed in the attack, which triggered widespread congressional criticism and undermined public confidence in the Biden administration's handling of the conclusion of the war.
According to an FBI affidavit filed as part of the case, Sharifullah admitted under questioning to having joined the Afghanistan-based Islamic State-Khorasan, also known as ISIS-K, in 2016. He told investigators that he was in prison from 2019 until about two weeks before the bombing, at which point he was contacted by another ISIS-K member about helping in the attack, the affidavit said.
He was given a motorcycle, funds for a cell phone and a SIM card, as well as instructions for communicating via social media during the attack operation, prosecutors said. He admitted to participating in the Abbey Gate attack by scouting a route to the airport for the bomber and communicating to other members of the militant group that the path was clear.
Sharifullah said he was instructed to leave the area and later learned that the bombing was done by an ISIS-K operative he had met while jailed, the affidavit said.
The bomber was identified as Abdul Rahman al-Logari, an Islamic State group militant who had been in an Afghan prison but was released by the Taliban as the group took control of the country that summer.
During his FBI interrogation, Sharifullah also said he had shared firearms and weapons instructions before a March 2024 attack at a Moscow concert hall that was also carried out by ISIS-K and killed scores of people, authorities said.
Sharifullah was arrested in 2019 by the U.S.-backed Afghan government at the time but escaped from prison on Aug. 15, 2021, as the Taliban took Kabul.
The Pakistani officials said Sharifullah had planned the bombing from behind bars with other senior militant figures. They said he remained on the run in the border areas of Balochistan until his arrest through a joint intelligence-sharing operation between Pakistan and the U.S.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif thanked Trump for “acknowledging and appreciating” the country’s role in counter-terrorism efforts in Afghanistan.
“We will continue to partner closely with the United States in securing regional peace and stability,” Sharif said on the social media platform X.
From Kabul, the Taliban chief spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid declined to comment beyond saying that the arrest “on Pakistani soil” of an Afghan national and member of the Islamic State group shows that IS group figures “have taken refuge and established havens” inside Pakistan.
"This issue has nothing to do with Afghanistan,” Mujahid said. The regional Islamic State affiliate is a rival group to the Afghan Taliban.
Trump, a Republican, had repeatedly condemned Biden's role in the Afghanistan withdrawal on the campaign trail and blamed Biden, a Democrat, for the Abbey Gate attack. A review last year by U.S. Central Command concluded that the attack was not preventable despite assertions by some service members who believed they had a chance to take out the would-be bomber but did not get approval.
A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity Tuesday night to discuss a case that had yet to be unsealed, said Sharifullah's arrest came after fresh U.S. intelligence community coordination, increased intelligence sharing and pressure on regional partners to bring those responsible for the attack to account since Trump’s swearing-in in January.
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Tucker reported from Washington.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
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