A senior planner of a suicide bomber at Kabul Airport, who killed 13 American service members during the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan, has been detained and taken to the US to face charges, President Donald Trump announced Tuesday night.
On Wednesday, a senior Pakistan intelligence officer confirmed his arrest, saying the suspect was captured in Baluchistan, a country near the border with Afghanistan, after multiple operations did not seize him.
The White House identified the man as Muhammad Sharihura and described him as “coordinating the attack on the monastery gates.” FBI director Kash Patel, who attended Trump’s speech, posted on social media platform X that the arrest “has taken a step closer to the justice of these American heroes and their families.”
In the horrifying attack in August 2021, two suicide bombers and gunmen attacked a crowd of Afghans who flocked to the airport in Kabul on a waning day of airlifts for those fleeing the country’s Taliban buyout.
During the final day of Afghanistan’s withdrawal, 13 US service members and 170 Afghans were killed by the monastery gate bombing, but the scores were even higher. It sparked widespread criticism of Congress and undermined public confidence in the Biden administration.
A senior US official said Sharifler, also known as Jafar, was arrested at the Afghanistan-Pakistan border later last month by Pakistani officials. US law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, questioned him over the weekend.
During questioning, officials said the suspect confessed his role in the attack – called the Abby Gate attack after the airport gate that took place, and also the March 2024 attack in Moscow, which took place in affiliate marketing of the Islamic State group known as the Islamic State Korrasan province or ISIS-K, as well as several attacks within Iran.
The charges Sharifullah faced were not immediately known. A US official said the claims were not sealed Wednesday as they spoke about the conditions of anonymity to discuss the lawsuit against Sharihula before it was announced. He was in the US while Trump spoke late Tuesday.
Pakistani senior intelligence agent also spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to speak to the media, Sharihula said he joined the extremist group in 2016 and was involved in more than 20 attacks across Afghanistan.
He was arrested in 2019 by the then US-backed Afghan government, but fled from prison on August 15, 2021 after the Taliban took Kabul.
Pakistani officials said Sharihula was planning a bombing from behind the bar along with other senior militants. “He continued to run in the Baluchistan border area until he was arrested through a joint intelligence news sharing work between Pakistan and the United States,” they added.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shebaz Sharif thanked Trump for “recognizing and appreciating” the country’s role in counterterrorism efforts in Afghanistan.
“We will continue to partner closely with the United States to ensure peace and stability in our region,” Sharif said on Social Platform X.
From Kabul, the Taliban chief spokesman Zabiara Mujahid refused to comment on the arrest of “Pakistani soil” of Afghan nationals and members of the Islamic State Group, “displaced and established displaced” within Pakistan, saying that the arrest of “Pakistani soil” was “Pakistani soil.”
“This issue has nothing to do with Afghanistan,” Mujahid said. The regional Islamic State affiliates are rival groups of the Taliban in Afghanistan.
The Department of Justice did not immediately return an email seeking comment.
A review by the US Central Command last year concluded that suicide bombings cannot be prevented. The US military previously identified the bomber as Abdul Rahman al-Rogali, an extremist of the Islamic State who was in an Afghan prison, but was released by the Taliban that summer as the group ruled the country.
Trump repeatedly denounced Biden’s role in Afghanistan’s withdrawal on the campaign trail, and denounced Biden for attacking the monastery’s gates. Officials said Sharihula’s arrest came after a fresh coordination of the US intelligence reporting community, increased intelligence sharing and increased pressure on local partners.