A man accused of helping to plan the Kabul airport bombing during the US military withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 appeared in court on Wednesday.
The US Department of Justice (DoJ) said it had charged Mohammad Sharifullah with providing support and resources to a foreign terrorist organisation, which resulted in death. He faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.
US officials accused Sharifullah of being a member of IS-K, a group that took credit for the attack and that has been proscribed as a terror organisation by governments around the world.
At least 170 Afghans died alongside 13 US service members in the attack, which resulted in intense criticism for then-US President Joe Biden.
Current US President Donald Trump, who often blamed Biden and Former Vice-President Kamala Harris for the service members’ deaths, announced Sharifullah’s arrest in his address to Congress on Tuesday.
“He is right now on his way here to face the swift sword of American justice,” Trump told his audience.
The next day, Sharifullah appeared in court wearing a blue jail jumpsuit, according to CBS News, the BBC’s US partner. He stood at about 5ft tall (150cm), wore a surgical face mask and communicated in a packed courtroom via an interpreter.
After a brief hearing that discussed his lack of assets and need for a defence lawyer, the federal judge overseeing the case ordered Sharifullah to be held in custody until a formal detention hearing on Monday.
Several justice department officials who were recently appointed to office by Trump praised the president for the arrest, and FBI chief Kash Patel shared an image of him in custody.
“Under President Trump’s strong leadership on the world stage, this Department of Justice will ensure that terrorists like Mohammad Sharifullah have no safe haven, no second chances, and no worse enemy than the United States of America,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said.
A family member of two Afghans who died in the aftermath of the attack said he was upset with Trump after the speech.
“He talked about the 13 US soldiers killed but not anything about us,” he told the BBC. “We want the Americans to pay attention to us and take us to America as they promised,” the man added.
The bombing of Abbey Gate at the Kabul airport occurred in the final days of the chaotic US military withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021. The attacker triggered a bomb in a crowd of thousands of Afghans who had gathered at the airport in hopes of being evacuated before the Taliban took full control of the country.
Congressional criticism of the Biden administration spiked in the aftermath, and it caused a decline in the public’s confidence in the then-president.
The justice department alleged that Sharifullah “admitted to helping prepare for the Abbey Gate, including scouting a route near the airport for an attack” during an interview with the FBI.
Sharifullah allegedly admitted to his involvement in several other attacks during the interview, including a June 2016 suicide bombing attack on the Canadian embassy in Kabul and the March 2024 gunmen attack on Crocus City Hall near Moscow, Russia.
Russia arrested four gunmen in connection with the attack in which it accused Ukraine of being involved.
“Sharifullah admitted that, on behalf of ISIS-K, he had shared instructions on how to use AK-style rifles and other weapons to would-be attackers. Sharfiullah also admitted to recognizing two of the four arrested gunmen as those he had previously instructed,” the justice department said.
