ISIS-K member sentenced to 20 years in prison in case tied to deadly 2021 Kabul airport suicide bombing

September 16, 2026 / 5:49 PM EDT / CBS/AP

A member of an Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan was sentenced Wednesday to 20 years in prison for aiding the terrorist organization, which took credit for a suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members and about 160 Afghans at the Kabul airport five years ago during the American military's chaotic withdrawal from the country.

A federal jury in Virginia had convicted Mohammad Sharifullah in April of providing material support to the affiliate, known as ISIS-K. But jurors could not agree whether he bore some responsibility for the airport bombing on Aug. 26, 2021.

U.S. troops were conducting an evacuation operation at the airport when a lone suicide bomber detonated an improvised explosive device near an entry point known as Abbey Gate. Sharifullah's role in the attack was scouting a route to Hamid Karzai International Airport, prosecutors said.

Sharifullah, 28, received the maximum sentence for his one-count conviction in an international terrorism case that President Trump heralded last year during a speech to a joint session of Congress. Sharifullah was captured in early 2025 by Pakistani intelligence and the CIA near Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, and was extradited to the United…

Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/world/