FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed that the suspect accused of orchestrating the 2021 Kabul airport bombing arrived in the U.S. on Tuesday to face charges for developing a plot that killed 13 American service members and at least 170 Afghan civilians.
“On the ground last night at Dulles airfield as FBI personnel and our DOJ + CIA partners delivered a terrorist wanted for the Afghanistan Abbey Gate murders,” Patel wrote in a Wednesday statement on the social platform X.
“To terrorists around the world responsible for harming Americans: We will hunt the ends of the earth and find you,” he added.
Mohammad Sharifullah is charged with providing and conspiring to provide material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization resulting in death and is expected to appear in the Eastern District of Virginia on Wednesday. The attack came as the U.S. was withdrawing from Afghanistan.
Authorities say he admitted to planning the ISIS-K attack at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul when a suicide bomber detonating a body-worn explosive at Abbey Gate in August 2021.
“The lethal attack that killed 13 American service members and Afghan civilians during the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan was an act of terrorism,” Patel said in a statement.
“ISIS-K brazenly claimed responsibility for the carnage. Now thanks to the assistance of the FBI, Department of Justice, and the CIA, we have secured Sharifullah’s apprehension and transport to the U.S. to face American justice.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi said the charges show that terrorists have “no safe haven, no second chances, and no worse enemy than the United States of America.”
If convicted, Sharifullah faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.
