A terrorist from the Islamic State – Khorasan Province (ISIS-K), who was extradited to the United States in the early Wednesday morning hours, confessed to the FBI that he played key roles in the infamous bombing of Abbey Gate at the Kabul, Afghanistan airport that took the lives of soldiers and civilians, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. He also claimed taking part in a deadly attack on a concert hall in Moscow, and a blast targeting Canadian embassy security guards in Kabul.

Mohammad Sharifullah's capture in a joint raid between Pakistani intelligence and the Central Intelligence Agency was announced by President Donald Trump at a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night, revealing that the U.S. had captured Sharifullah, also known as “Jafar.” Trump also told the nation that Sharifullah is believed to be one of the ISIS-K terrorists responsible for the August 2021 Abbey Gate terrorist attack that killed 13 American troops during the bungled withdrawal from Afghanistan. 

Jafar landed in U.S. custody at Washington Dulles International Airport and has an initial court appearance Wednesday in Alexandria, Virginia. New FBI court documents shed further light on the slew of attacks in which Sharifullah has claimed a role.

Sharifullah was read his "Miranda rights" by the FBI and he proceeded to tell them he was recruited into ISIS-K around 2016. The FBI said the terrorist was imprisoned in Afghanistan from approximately 2019 until two weeks before the Kabul airport attack. An ISIS-K suicide bomber named Abdul Rahman al-Logari — who had been freed by the Taliban from a prison at Bagram Air Base in mid-August 2021, mere weeks after the U.S. abandoned the base — has been identified as having carried out the suicide attack at Abbey Gate. The FBI said Sharifullah recognized Logari as an ISIS-K operative he had known while in prison.

Lead-up to the Kabul airport attack

The FBI said Sharifullah was contacted by another ISIS-K member upon being freed from prison in mid-August 2021 who linked Sharifullah up with the ISIS-K plot to attack U.S. forces at Hamid Karzai International Airport. The bureau said ISIS-K members provided Sharifullah with a motorcycle, funds for a cell phone, and instructions on using social media to communicate with them in the lead-up to the attack. 

Sharifullah said he “was tasked with scouting a route near HKIA for an attacker,” the FBI said, and Sharifullah “conducted surveillance on a route, specifically checking for law enforcement and American or Taliban checkpoints.” The terrorist told his ISIS-K associates that the route seemed clear and that he didn’t believe Logari would be detected when approaching HKIA.

The Abbey Gate attack killed eleven Marines, one Army soldier, one Navy corpsman, and an estimated 170 Afghan civilians, while wounding dozens of other U.S. troops and scores of Afghans in the crowd, on August 26, 2021. 

Patel: "The FBI will never forget"

Gold Star family members of the fallen U.S. soldiers pleaded with the Biden administration for more answers about the attack, Fox News reported, including during a roundtable before the House Foreign Affairs Committee in 2023, where the Biden White House sought to place the blame for the debacle on the first Trump Administration. 

Earlier this year, the family members condemned the Biden administration for doing "nothing but attempt to take victory laps and thumb their noses at the sacrifice our children made on that fateful day," and the families called upon the Trump administration to pursue answers. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said last week that "we’re taking a very different view obviously than the previous [Biden] administration — and there will be full accountability."

Sharifullah has been charged with providing material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization resulting in death, and he faces a potential life sentence. FBI Director Kash Patel vowed that “the FBI will never forget the loss of these American heroes, we will continue to hunt down those who viciously murdered our warriors, we will find all responsible and bring them to justice.” Attorney General Pam Bondi said that “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.”

And CIA Director John Ratcliffe said Wednesday that “my second day on the job, I spoke with the head of Pakistani intelligence. I shared with him intelligence we had indicating that Jafar was located in the Afghan-Pakistan border region.”

Then-President Joe Biden announced the unconditional withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in an April 2021 speech, setting the withdrawal deadline for the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack. The Taliban conducted a rapid takeover of the country in the ensuing months and swept into the Afghan capital of Kabul on August 15, 2021. The chaotic and deadly non-combatant evacuation operation by the U.S. was conducted while the U.S. military relied upon a hostile Taliban to provide security outside the airport.

Trump said Tuesday 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 "fake mastermind"

Sarah Adams, a writer and an alum of the CIA who has investigated the Abbey Gate attack, argued on X that Trump was being misled and that Sharifullah was a “fake mastermind.” She contended that the Abbey Gate attack instead “had two joint Masterminds” neither of which were Sharifullah. She said that Sirajuddin Haqqani, the current Taliban interior minister and the leader of the terrorist Haqqani Network, and Sanaullah Ghafari, believed to be a former mid-level Haqqani commander and the current leader of ISIS-K were the "real" masterminds.

Mastermind or not, the FBI said Sharifullah further confessed to playing a role in the March 2024 attack by ISIS-K against the Crocus City Hall near Moscow, Russia, which killed approximately 130 people. The Biden State Department said it had collected intelligence indicating that ISIS-K was planning an attack in Moscow and contended that it had warned the Kremlin about it.

Sharifullah said he received an order from an ISIS-K senior leader to teach would-be attackers in Moscow on how to use AK-style rifles. He added that he later recognized two of perpetrators as men to whom he had provided the online firearms training.

Death at the Canadian embassy

The FBI said Sharifullah also confessed to a role in facilitating a June 2016 suicide bombing attack which intended to target U.S. Embassy personnel in Kabul but which actually killed more than ten guards tasked with protecting the Canadian embassy. Sharifullah said he conducted surveillance ahead of that attack and transported the bomber, who he said was named "Irfan," to the site of the attack.

At the time, that suicide bomber was widely reported to have been part of the Taliban, and the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid had even touted the deadly bombing on then-Twitter, saying it was carried out “against the forces of aggression” in Afghanistan.

The UN sanctions monitoring team said in a May 2020 report published by Security Council Report that some of the attacks claimed by ISIS-K may have arisen via “tactical accommodation” with the Haqqani Network. The UN team also said that some countries noted that most ISIS-K attacks include “involvement, facilitation, or the provision of technical assistance” by the Haqqani Network. The UN team also said it had “viewed communication intercepts in the wake of attacks that were claimed by ISIS-K that were traceable to known members of the Haqqani Network.”

One UN member state said in June 2021 that Ghafari’s ongoing relationship with the Haqqanis provided ISIS-K with “key expertise and access to [attack] networks.” The UN team said that some attacks by ISIS-K may have been “joint ventures” with the Haqqanis.

Neither the FBI nor any of the involved governmental agencies have been able to fully answer the many unanswered questions raised by lawmakers about the attacks and withdrawal, but Sharifullah may very well provide answers — if they can be relied upon — as his case moves through the judicial system.