ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A suspected participant within the suicide bombing on the Kabul airport that killed 13 American service members and roughly 170 Afghan civilians in the course of the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan arrived within the U.S. on Wednesday to face felony fees in reference to the assault.
Mohammad Sharifullah was taken into custody over the weekend and admitted throughout an FBI interrogation to being a member of the Islamic State group’s affiliate in Afghanistan and to his position within the August 2021 suicide bombing and different assaults, in response to U.S. officers.
President Donald Trump introduced the arrest throughout his Tuesday night time address to Congress, telling the viewers that he was “happy to announce that we have now simply apprehended the highest terrorist liable for that atrocity. And he’s proper now on his method right here to face the swift sword of American justice.”
Senior Pakistani intelligence officers on Wednesday confirmed the arrest and mentioned Sharifullah, also called Jafar, was captured within the nation’s restive southwest Balochistan province close to the border with Afghanistan after a number of operations had did not seize him.
Sharifullah is charged in federal courtroom in Virginia with offering materials assist to a overseas terrorist group, leading to dying. He wore a light-blue jail jumpsuit and listened by way of headphones as an interpreter translated the proceedings. His public defender declined to remark after his courtroom look, which ended with him being held till not less than a detention listening to set for Monday.
The Abbey Gate bombing, within the waning days of an airlift for these fleeing the Taliban takeover of the nation amid the withdrawal by U.S. forces from the nation, occurred in August 2021 when a suicide bomber attacked crowds of Afghans flocking to Kabul’s airport. Moreover 13 U.S. service members, about 170 Afghans have been additionally killed within the assault, which triggered widespread congressional criticism and undermined public confidence within the Biden administration’s dealing with of the conclusion of the struggle.
In accordance with an FBI affidavit filed as a part of the case, Sharifullah admitted beneath questioning to having joined the Afghanistan-based Islamic State-Khorasan, also called ISIS-Okay, in 2016. He informed investigators that he was in jail from 2019 till about two weeks earlier than the bombing, at which level he was contacted by one other ISIS-Okay member about serving to within the assault, the affidavit mentioned.
He was given a motorbike, funds for a mobile phone and a SIM card, in addition to directions for speaking through social media in the course of the assault operation, prosecutors mentioned. He admitted to collaborating within the Abbey Gate assault by scouting a path to the airport for the bomber and speaking to different members of the militant group that the trail was clear.
Sharifullah mentioned he was instructed to go away the world and later realized that the bombing was executed by an ISIS-Okay operative he had met whereas jailed, the affidavit mentioned.
The bomber was recognized as Abdul Rahman al-Logari, an Islamic State group militant who had been in an Afghan jail however was launched by the Taliban because the group took management of the nation that summer season.
Throughout his FBI interrogation, Sharifullah additionally mentioned he had shared firearms and weapons directions earlier than a March 2024 attack at a Moscow concert hall that was additionally carried out by ISIS-Okay and killed scores of individuals, authorities mentioned.
Sharifullah was arrested in 2019 by the U.S.-backed Afghan authorities on the time however escaped from jail on Aug. 15, 2021, because the Taliban took Kabul.
The Pakistani officers mentioned Sharifullah had deliberate the bombing from behind bars with different senior militant figures. They mentioned he remained on the run within the border areas of Balochistan till his arrest by way of a joint intelligence-sharing operation between Pakistan and the U.S.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif thanked Trump for “acknowledging and appreciating” the nation’s position in counter-terrorism efforts in Afghanistan.
“We are going to proceed to companion carefully with the USA in securing regional peace and stability,” Sharif mentioned on the social media platform X.
From Kabul, the Taliban chief spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid declined to remark past saying that the arrest “on Pakistani soil” of an Afghan nationwide and member of the Islamic State group exhibits that IS group figures “have taken refuge and established havens” inside Pakistan.
“This subject has nothing to do with Afghanistan,” Mujahid mentioned. The regional Islamic State affiliate is a rival group to the Afghan Taliban.
Trump, a Republican, had repeatedly condemned Biden’s position within the Afghanistan withdrawal on the marketing campaign path and blamed Biden, a Democrat, for the Abbey Gate assault. A assessment final yr by U.S. Central Command concluded that the assault was not preventable regardless of assertions by some service members who believed that they had an opportunity to take out the would-be bomber however didn’t get approval.
A U.S. official, talking on the situation of anonymity Tuesday night time to debate a case that had but to be unsealed, mentioned Sharifullah’s arrest got here after contemporary U.S. intelligence neighborhood coordination, elevated intelligence sharing and strain on regional companions to deliver these liable for the assault to account since Trump’s swearing-in in January.
—Tucker reported from Washington.
