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Man accused of aiding Kabul airport bombing charged in US court


Man accused of aiding Kabul airport bombing charged in US court


Mohammad Sharifullah, accused of aiding the 2021 bombing of the Kabul airport, is held in custody as he arrives in the US

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 Shafiullah with providing support and resources to a foreign terrorist organization, which resulted in death. He faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.
US officials accused Shafiullah of being a member of IS-K, a group that took credit for the attack and that has been proscribed as a terror organization 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 Saifullah'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, Shafiullah 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 defense lawyer, the federal judge overseeing the case ordered Shafiullah 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 Kasha 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 Shafiullah 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 Shafiullah "admitted to helping prepare for the Abbey Gate, including scouting a route near the airport for an attack" during an interview with the FBI.
Shafiullah 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.

"Shafiullah 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. Shafiullah also admitted to recognizing two

 of the four arrested gunmen as those he had previously instructed," the justice department said.




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