The ISIS-K terrorist who Pakistani officials handed over to the United States this week in connection to the Abbey Gate bombing is tied to multiple other terrorist attacks.
The U.S. charged Mohammad Sharifullah, the ISIS-K terrorist, on Sunday with providing and conspiring to provide material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization, which resulted in death. Sharifullah is expected to appear in court on Thursday, and if convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Recommended Stories
- WATCH LIVE: Karoline Leavitt holds White House press briefing after Trump joint address
- Georgia House advances bill aiming to prevent school shootings
- Lobbyist dumped over alleged 'racist' texts was top Democratic donor
A Department of Justice affidavit revealed that he admitted to “supporting and conducting activities on behalf of ISIS-K in support of multiple lethal attacks” in conversations with U.S. law enforcement, and it said he acknowledged getting recruited to the terrorist organization in or around 2016.
The affidavit spells out his ties to three specific ISIS-K attacks that, in totality, killed hundreds of civilians.
Sharifullah said he conducted surveillance ahead of time and ultimately transported the would-be bomber to the location of a June 20, 2016, bombing that killed more than 10 guards tasked with protecting the Canadian Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. He recalled that the bomber’s name was “Irfan.”
He was then imprisoned in Afghanistan in 2019, though the affidavit did not specify why. He was held there until August 2021, just about two weeks before the Abbey Gate bombing.
With the U.S. military set to leave Afghanistan, the Taliban carried out a quick offensive against the U.S.-backed Afghan army, which collapsed. The Taliban, once it gained territory, began releasing people from the prisons it controlled.
Once released, ISIS-K members provided Sharifullah with a motorcycle, money to get a cellphone, and instructions on how to communicate with them during an impending attack. He was also tasked with conducting surveillance on a route to Hamid Karzai International Airport.
Sharifullah informed his partners that he did not believe the would-be bomber would be detected, and he later was instructed to leave the area ahead of the bombing.
The bomber was Abdul Rahman al Logari, whom he recognized from his incarceration, was also released by the Taliban just weeks before the attack.
Thirteen U.S. service members were killed in the bombing, and roughly 170 people died in the attack. Dozens of other U.S. troops were injured.
The troops killed included 11 Marines: Lance Cpl. David Espinoza, 20; Sgt. Nicole Gee, 23; Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover, 31; Cpl. Hunter Lopez, 22; Lance Cpl. Dylan R. Merola, 20; Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum, 20; Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, 20; Cpl. Daegan William-Tyeler Page, 23; Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo, 25; Cpl. Humberto Sanchez, 22; and Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, 20. Also killed were Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss, 23, and Navy Hospital Corpsman Maxton Soviak, 22.
Sharifullah also aided the terrorists who carried out the March 22, 2024, ISIS-K attack on a popular concert venue complex near Moscow, Russia. Roughly 130 people were killed and more injured. Earlier that month, he received an order from an ISIS-K senior leader to provide instructions on how to properly use AK-style rifles and other weapons, and he ultimately shared video instructions with several
individuals.
He recognized two of the four alleged perpetrators as the same individuals to whom he provided the training videos.
President Donald Trump announced during his Tuesday night address to Congress that the Pakistanis apprehended Sharifullah and were in the process of extraditing him over to the U.S.
The CIA has been monitoring Sharifullah for some time but received specific intelligence about his location recently, according to a U.S. official. The CIA provided the intelligence to Pakistani intelligence, which sent an elite unit to track him down, and he was found and captured near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
The president praised the Pakistanis for their quick apprehension of Sharifullah.
“We thank US President Donald Trump for acknowledging and appreciating Pakistan’s role and support in counterterrorism efforts across the region, in the context of Pakistan Security Forces’ recent apprehension of ISKP’s top tier operational commander Shareefullah, who is an Afghanistan National,” Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said. “The wanted terrorist was apprehended in a successful operation conducted in the Pakistan-Afghan border region.”
Several members of the president’s cabinet, including FBI Director Kash Patel, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, were at Dulles airfield for Sharifullah’s overnight arrival to the U.S.
“This evil ISIS-K terrorist orchestrated the brutal murder of 13 heroic Marines,” Bondi said in a statement. “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.”