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 has arrived in the US 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 Daesh's affiliate in Afghanistan and to his role in the August 2021 suicide bombing and other attacks, according to US 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 organisation, 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 US forces, occurred in August 2021 when a suicide bomber attacked crowds of Afghans flocking to Kabul’s airport. Besides 13 US 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.
Attack breakdown
According to an FBI affidavit filed as part of the case, Sharifullah admitted under questioning to having joined the Afghanistan-based Daesh-Khorasan, also known as Daesh-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 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 operative he had met while jailed, the affidavit said.
The bomber was identified as Abdul Rahman al Logari, a Daesh militant who had been in an Afghan prison.
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 killed scores of people, authorities said.
Taliban's comment
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 spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid declined to comment beyond saying that the arrest "on Pakistani soil" of an Afghan national and member of Daesh group shows that group figures "have taken refuge and established havens" inside Pakistan.
"This issue has nothing to do with Afghanistan," Mujahid said.
