US President Donald Trump has thanked Pakistan for its role in the capture of ISIS terrorist Mohammad Sharifullah, who was responsible for the 2021 Kabul airport bombing that killed 13 American soldiers during the US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.
According to a report by US media, in his first address to a joint session of Congress, US President Donald Trump referred to the 2021 Kabul airport Abbey Gate bombing and said, “Tonight, I am pleased to announce that we have captured the top terrorist responsible for this atrocity and he is coming here to face the sharp sword of American justice. “US President Donald Trump thanked Islamabad for its role in the arrest, saying, ‘I want to thank the government of Pakistan in particular for helping to capture this beast.”
According to US media reports, the arrest is the result of close cooperation between the CIA and Pakistan’s intelligence services, especially the ISI. Mohammad Sharifullah, also known as “Jafar”, was arrested near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border after the CIA pinpointed his whereabouts.
Sharifullah, a senior commander of ISIS, is accused of planning and overseeing the bombing of the Kabul airport’s Abbey Gate, which made him a long-time target for US counterterrorism agencies.Just days after his appointment, CIA Director John Ratcliffe raised the issue in a phone call with his Pakistani counterpart, Lieutenant General Asim Malik. The issue was raised again during a meeting at the Munich Security Conference in mid-February, where the two officials stressed the importance of cooperation.
The CIA had been tracking Sharifullah for some time, and when new intelligence pointed to his whereabouts, the agency shared it with Pakistan’s intelligence service, which then deployed an elite unit.10 days after Sharifullah’s capture, Ratcliffe and FBI Director Kash Patel spoke by phone with Lt. Gen. Asim Malik from CIA headquarters in Langley to discuss the next steps for his extradition.
A coordinated effort by the CIA, the Justice Department, and the FBI, with all parties actively participating in the process, could be the beginning of a significant shift in cooperation between Washington and Islamabad.
A White House official has confirmed that Mohammad Sharifullah is being extradited to the United States. Allegedly involved in planning the deadly bombing at the Abbey Gate of Kabul airport during the withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
Terrorist involved in the Kabul airport bombing extradited to the United States
Moments after Trump’s speech, FBI Director Kash Patel wrote in his ex-post that “as President Trump just announced, I can report that one of the terrorists responsible for the killing of 13 American soldiers at Abbey Gate during the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal has been extradited to the FBI, DOJ, and CIA tonight.”
Sharifullah was charged in an indictment filed in the Eastern District of Virginia on Tuesday with providing material support to and conspiring with a designated foreign terrorist organization, resulting in deaths.
On Sunday, FBI agents interviewed him, and he told them that he had joined ISIS-Khorasan, an offshoot of ISIS, in 2016. According to the indictment, in the interview, Sharifullah admitted to facilitating several deadly attacks on behalf of ISIS-Khorasan.
It should be recalled that on August 26, 2021, two suicide bombers and some armed men attacked the Abbey Gate, also known as the South Gate, of Kabul Airport. At that time, thousands of Afghans were also there trying to leave the country. More than 170 Afghan civilians and 13 American soldiers were killed in this deadly attack. The ISIS-Khorasan group claimed responsibility for the attack.
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