The Media Line: ISIS-K Operative Sentenced 20 Years for Afghanistan Bombing That Killed 13 US Troops, 160 Civilians 

ISIS-K Operative Sentenced 20 Years for Afghanistan Bombing That Killed 13 US Troops, 160 Civilians  

By Arshad Mehmood / The Media Line  

An Afghan Islamic State-Khorasan Province (ISIS-K) operative who played a key role in the 2021 Abbey Gate suicide bombing in Kabul, which killed 13 US service members and approximately 160 civilians, has been sentenced to 20 years in a US prison.   

The US Department of Justice said in its latest media statement that Mohammad Sharifullah was convicted of providing material support and resources to ISIS-K and had participated in more than a dozen attacks carried out by the group over nearly a decade.   

Sharifullah was apprehended by Pakistani security forces in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region in early 2025 and subsequently handed over to US authorities.   

US President Donald Trump publicly thanked Pakistan for its assistance in capturing Sharifullah during his address to Congress on March 4, 2025. In his speech, the president criticized former President Joe Biden for his handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan.  

“This was a very momentous day for those 13 families, who I actually got to know very well, most of them whose children were murdered, and the many people that were so badly—over 42 people so badly injured on that fateful day in Afghanistan,” the president said. “What a horrible day. Such incompetence was shown.”  

According to court records and evidence presented at trial, ISIS-K leadership assigned Sharifullah to surveil a road leading to the airport on August 26, 2021, as the US-led evacuation was underway following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.  

Thousands of civilians had gathered at Abbey Gate in an attempt to leave Afghanistan when ISIS-K operative Abdul Rahman al-Logari detonated a suicide bomb at Abbey Gate, killing 13 US military service members and approximately 160 civilians, according to evidence presented in the case.   

“Sharifullah spent nearly a decade at the heart of a horrific campaign of terror,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg said, accusing him of providing critical support for attacks against civilians around the world and contributing to the deaths of US service members and others at Abbey Gate.  

On June 20, 2016, a suicide bomber acting for ISIS-K targeted Nepali security guards protecting the Canadian Embassy in Kabul. Prior to the attack, Sharifullah conducted surveillance to prepare the suicide bomber and later transported him to the attack site, according to court records cited by the department.  

Sharifullah was also involved in the March 22, 2024, ISIS-K attack on Crocus City Hall near Moscow, Russia, in which ISIS-K gunmen killed more than 100 civilians, the Justice Department said.  

According to the department, Sharifullah shared instructions with the attackers on how to use AK-style rifles and other weapons and remained in communication with them during the attack.  

In all, Sharifullah participated in more than a dozen ISIS-K attacks between 2016 and his apprehension in 2025, the Justice Department said.  

Throughout those operations, he was involved in various aspects of ISIS-K activities, including conducting surveillance for attacks, moving suicide bombers, transporting and cleaning weapons, relaying communications among ISIS-K personnel and recording explosions for ISIS-K propaganda, according to evidence presented in court.  

FBI officials said the case demonstrated the agency’s ability to pursue terrorism suspects regardless of where an attack occurred.  

Assistant Director Jarod Brown of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division said the Abbey Gate bombing occurred thousands of miles from the United States but that the FBI and its interagency partners nevertheless brought Sharifullah to the United States to face justice.  

The FBI Washington Field Office investigated the case.