Suspect in Kabul airport bombing throughout Afghanistan pullout caught and heading to U.S., Trump says

WASHINGTON — A suspected senior planner within the suicide bombing on the Kabul airport that killed 13 American service members in the course of the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan has been taken into custody and can seem Wednesday in federal courtroom within the United States to face expenses.

President Trump introduced the arrest throughout his Tuesday evening tackle to Congress, with the White House and the Justice Department subsequently figuring out the suspect as Mohammad Sharifullah. Officials accuse him of being a member of the Islamic State group’s Afghanistan affiliate, often known as ISIS-Khorasan, or ISIS-Ok, and say he admitted his position in that assault and others throughout an interview with FBI brokers on Sunday after being taken into custody.

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. The officers, who spoke on the situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t approved to speak to the media, mentioned Sharifullah had joined the militant group in 2016 and was concerned in quite a few assaults throughout Afghanistan.

Sharifullah is charged in federal courtroom in Virginia with offering materials help to a overseas terrorist group, leading to dying. He will face a choose on Wednesday and be assigned a lawyer to talk on his behalf. Additional expenses are attainable because the case strikes by means of the courtroom system.

Trump, in his tackle to Congress, mentioned 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.”

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. Besides 13 U.S. service members, about 170 Afghans have been additionally killed within the assault, which triggered widespread congressional criticism and undermined public confidence in President Biden’s administration.

According to an FBI affidavit filed as a part of the case, Sharifullah admitted below questioning to having joined ISIS-Ok in 2016 and to having participated within the Abbey Gate bombing by scouting a path to the airport for the bomber and speaking to different members of the militant group that the trail was clear. The bomber was later 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 time.

During his FBI interrogation, Sharifullah additionally mentioned he had shared firearms and weapons directions earlier than a March 2024 assault in Moscow that was additionally carried out by ISIS-Ok, 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 means 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 counterterrorism efforts in Afghanistan.

“We will continue to partner closely with the United States in securing regional peace and stability,” Sharif mentioned on the social 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 reveals that IS group figures “have taken refuge and established havens” inside Pakistan.

“This issue 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 U.S. official, talking on the situation of anonymity Tuesday evening to debate a case that had but to be unsealed, mentioned Sharifullah’s arrest got here after contemporary U.S. intelligence group coordination, elevated intelligence sharing and stress on regional companions to deliver these answerable for the assault to account since Trump’s swearing-in in January.

Tucker and Miller write for the Associated Press.