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Kabul Airport bombing suspect not a top-level planner of deadly attack: FBI

Mohammad Sharifullah will however remain in custody on charges of providing and conspiring to provide material support and resources to a terrorist organization, US judge stated in a federal court

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Mohammad Sharifullah airport bombing suspect

Kabul Airport bombing suspect, who was arrested in Pakistan last week and extradited to the United States, was not a top-level planner of the deadly attack in August 2021, the FBI has said. 

However, Mohammad Sharifullah will remain in custody on charges of providing and conspiring to provide material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization, US magistrate judge William Fitzpatrick stated in a federal court on Monday. 

During an address to Congress last week, US President Donald Trump described Sharifullah as “the top terrorist responsible” for the suicide bombing outside the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul amid the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan.

However, FBI Special Agent Seth Parker agreed with Sharifullah’s public defender on Monday that the alleged terrorist was not one of the top-level planners of the bombing, according to Fox News.

Parker alleged that Sharifullah was tasked by ISIS-K (Daesh) higher-ups with conducting reconnaissance ahead of the attack, including surveilling the road leading to Abbey Gate for the presence of roadblocks and law enforcement.

The hearing, the second for Sharifullah since he was brought on US soil last week, also revealed that the alleged ISIS-K member has claimed he was not present during the bombing and was unaware of the specifics of the target.

Parker, however, testified that Sharifullah was indeed an ISIS-K member with experience in helping carry out suicide bombings.

The Justice Department said last week that Sharifullah admitted to FBI agents during interviews that he conducted surveillance and later transported a suicide bomber near the Canadian embassy in Kabul ahead of the June 2016 attack.

Sharifullah also confessed to sharing instructions on how to use AK-style rifles and other weapons with two of the four gunmen responsible for the March 2024 ISIS-K attack on Crocus City Hall near Moscow, which killed approximately 130 people.

Parker testified that Sharifullah was living near Quetta, Pakistan, where he was raising livestock, including chickens, when he was apprehended.

If convicted, Sharifullah faces a maximum penalty of life in prison for his role in the Kabul Airport attack.

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Four members of one family killed in Helmand in Pakistan airstrike

The family, originally from Ghazni province, reportedly operated a small restaurant in the area.

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Four members of a family were killed and seven others wounded in an airstrike in Safar area of Garmser district in southern Afghanistan’s Helmand province, according to local reports.

The family, originally from Ghazni province, reportedly operated a small restaurant in the area.

The bodies of those killed and the wounded were transported by helicopter to Ghazni province for burial and medical treatment, according to the reports.

 

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UNAMA acting chief visits Islam Qala border to assess support for returnees

UN launched a $529 million response plan aimed at assisting around 2.7 million Afghans expected to return from Iran and Pakistan between April and December 2026.

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Georgette Gagnon, UNAMA’s acting head, visited western Afghanistan, including the Islam Qala border crossing, to see firsthand UN efforts to support millions of Afghans returning from neighboring Iran and Pakistan.

Earlier this year, the UN launched a $529 million response plan aimed at assisting around 2.7 million Afghans expected to return from Iran and Pakistan between April and December 2026.

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Trump: Unlike Afghanistan, US took all equipment from Iraq

Trump said the withdrawal from Iraq marked the end of what he described as a costly military involvement, adding that he had set a clear mission and instructed commanders to complete it without allowing the US presence to become permanent.

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US President Donald Trump on Wednesday compared the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq with the 2021 US withdrawal from Afghanistan, saying military equipment had been left behind in Afghanistan, while US forces leaving Iraq took their equipment with them.

Speaking at a White House event, Trump referred to the final departure of US-led coalition forces and equipment from Erbil Air Base in northern Iraq, which marked the end of the US military mission against Daesh in Iraq.

“I said, take a little longer. Take everyone. We left all of the equipment, if you remember, in Afghanistan. Everything was left behind,” Trump said.

“I said, ‘I want every screw taken. If there’s a screw lying on the ground, take it. If we have a canvas tent, take it.’ We took everything,” he added.

He also mentioned the August 2021 attack at Kabul airport that killed 13 US soldiers.

Trump said he had become acquainted with the families of the US service members killed in the attack and also highlighted those who were seriously wounded.

“What happened to those—to their children should never have been allowed to happen,” he said, adding that 48 wounded service members were severely injured and “never get mentioned.”

Trump said the withdrawal from Iraq marked the end of what he described as a costly military involvement, adding that he had set a clear mission and instructed commanders to complete it without allowing the US presence to become permanent.

The US military announced on Wednesday that its forces and equipment had completed an orderly departure from Erbil Air Base, formally ending Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq. The US-led mission began in 2014 to fight Daesh after the group seized large areas of Iraq and Syria. The US is continuing its counter-Daesh mission in Syria from a headquarters in Jordan.

Trump said the US had entered Iraq to fight the Islamic State and that the group no longer controlled a territorial “caliphate.”

“We came to fight a caliphate, and there is no longer a caliphate, so we are going home indeed,” he said.

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