Suspect in Kabul Airport Bombing During Afghanistan Pullout Is Caught and Heading to U.S., Trump Says

WASHINGTON — A suspected senior planner in the suicide bombing at the Kabul airport that killed 13 American service members during the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan has been taken into custody and is being brought to the United States to face charges, President Donald Trump announced Tuesday night.

Senior Pakistani intelligence officers on Wednesday confirmed the arrest and said the suspect was captured in the country’s restive southwest Balochistan province near the border with Afghanistan after multiple operations had failed to seize him.

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Trump, in a joint address to Congress said 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 White House identified the man as Muhammed Sharifullah and described him as having “orchestrated the Abbey Gate attack.” FBI Director Kash Patel, who attended Trump’s address, posted on the social media platform X that the arrest was “one step closer to justice for these American heroes and their families.”

In the horrific August 2021 attack, two suicide bombers and gunmen attacked crowds of Afghans flocking to Kabul’s airport in the waning days of an airlift for those fleeing the Taliban takeover of the country.

The Abbey Gate bombing during the final days of the Afghanistan withdrawal killed 13 U.S. service members and 170 Afghans, while wounding scores more. It triggered widespread congressional criticism and undermined public confidence in Biden’s administration.

A senior U.S. official said Sharifullah, also known as Jafar, was arrested late last month on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan by Pakistani officials. U.S. law enforcement, including the FBI, interrogated him over the weekend.

During the interrogation, the official said the suspect confessed to his role in the attack — dubbed Abbey Gate attack after the airport gate where it happened — and also a March 2024 attack in Moscow that was carried out by the Islamic State group’s affiliate, known as Islamic State Khorasan Province or ISIS-K, and several attacks inside Iran.

It was not immediately clear what charges Sharifullah would face. The U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the case against Sharifullah before it was unveiled, said charging documents would be unsealed Wednesday. He was in transit to the U.S. while Trump was speaking late Tuesday.

The senior Pakistani intelligence officers, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media, said Sharifullah had joined the militant group in 2016 and was involved in more than 20 attacks across Afghanistan.

He was arrested in 2019 by the U.S.-backed Afghan government at the time but escaped from prison on Aug. 15, 2021, as the Taliban took Kabul.

The Pakistani officials said Sharifullah had planned the bombing from behind bars with other senior militant figures. “He remained on the run in the border areas of Balochistan until his arrest through a joint intelligence-sharing operation between Pakistan and the U.S.,” they added.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif thanked Trump for “acknowledging and appreciating” the country’s role in counter terrorism efforts in Afghanistan.

“We will continue to partner closely with the United States in securing regional peace and stability,” said Sharif on social platform X.

From Kabul, the Taliban chief spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid declined to comment beyond saying that the arrest “on Pakistani soil” of an Afghan national and member of the Islamic State group shows that IS figures “have taken refuge and established havens” inside Pakistan.

“This issue has nothing to do with Afghanistan,” Mujahid said. The regional Islamic State affiliate is a rival group to the Afghan Taliban.

The Justice Department did not immediately return an email seeking comment

A review last year by U.S. Central Command concluded that the suicide bombing was not preventable. The U.S. military has previously identified the bomber as Abdul Rahman al-Logari, an Islamic State militant who had been in an Afghan prison but was released by the Taliban as the group took control of the country that summer.

Trump had repeatedly condemned Biden’s role in the Afghanistan withdrawal on the campaign trail and blamed Biden for the Abbey Gate attack. The official said Sharifullah’s arrest came after fresh U.S. intelligence community coordination, increased intelligence sharing and pressure on regional partners to bring those responsible for the attack to account since Trump’s swearing-in.

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