A suspected participant in the suicide bombing at Kabul airport, which resulted in the deaths of 13 American service members and approximately 170 Afghan civilians during the tumultuous 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, arrived in the United States on Wednesday to face criminal charges related to the attack. Mohammad Sharifullah was apprehended over the weekend and, during an FBI interrogation, confessed to being a member of the Islamic State’s affiliate in Afghanistan and to his involvement in the August 2021 suicide bombing, along with other attacks, according to U.S. officials.
Former President Donald Trump announced the arrest during his address to Congress on Tuesday night, expressing his satisfaction by stating, “I am 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 officials confirmed the arrest on Wednesday, revealing that Sharifullah, also known as Jafar, was captured in the volatile Balochistan province in southwestern Pakistan, near the Afghan border, after several failed operations to detain him.
Sharifullah faces charges in federal court in Virginia for providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, resulting in death. During his court appearance on Wednesday, he wore a light-blue jail jumpsuit and listened to the proceedings through headphones as an interpreter translated. His public defender declined to comment following the hearing, which concluded with Sharifullah being taken into custody until a detention hearing scheduled for Monday.
The Abbey Gate bombing occurred in August 2021, during the final days of an airlift for those fleeing the Taliban takeover amid the U.S. withdrawal. A suicide bomber targeted crowds of Afghans at Kabul’s airport, leading to the deaths of 13 U.S. service members and around 170 Afghans. The attack sparked significant congressional criticism and eroded public confidence in the Biden administration’s management of the war’s conclusion.
According to an FBI affidavit filed in the case, Sharifullah admitted to joining the Afghanistan-based Islamic State-Khorasan, also known as ISIS-K, in 2016. He informed investigators that he had been imprisoned from 2019 until about two weeks before the bombing, when he was contacted by another ISIS-K member regarding assistance with the attack. Prosecutors stated that he was provided with a motorcycle, funds for a cellphone and a SIM card, as well as instructions for communication via social media during the operation. Sharifullah acknowledged participating in the Abbey Gate attack by scouting a route to the airport for the bomber and relaying to other militants that the path was clear. He indicated that he was instructed to leave the area and later learned that the bombing was carried out by an ISIS-K operative he had met while incarcerated.
