The ISIS-K militant charged with the 2021 suicide bombing at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport during the chaotic US military withdrawal is the “wrong man,” a defence attorney said Monday as the trial began in Virginia. The suspect provided false information to secure entry into the United States, the attorney has argued during the opening statements of the trial.
The indictment marks a significant development in the ongoing investigation into one of the deadliest days for US forces in the last decade of the Afghan war. It also intensifies the political scrutiny surrounding the vetting processes that were used during the August 2021 evacuation.
Mohammad Sharifullah was brought to a US federal court for a trial on Monday over accusations that he had played a role in the bombing at the Abbey Gate that killed 200 people, including 13 US service members, during the Biden administration’s botched withdrawal, marking an end to America’s decades-long presence in the war-battered Afghanistan.
(US Marines are seen at Abbey Gate before a suicide bomber struck outside Hamid Karzai International Airport, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 26, 2021, in this image from a video released by the Department of Defence. Credit: US DoD)
Mohammad Sharifullah, known as “Jafar,” has been charged with one count of providing and conspiring to provide material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organisation, Islamic State – Khorasan Province (ISIS-K), an affiliate of the Islamic State active in Central and South Asia, causing deaths. He is also accused of scouting the bomber’s route to the airport before the attack. He has pleaded not guilty. The court documents also accuse him of concealing his affiliations and past activities when applying for resettlement.
Sharifullah was interrogated by the FBI agents for several hours over the course of weeks following his capture. A jury began hearing the opening statements and witness testimony.
One of the lawyers for the accused claimed that he had no role in the bombing of the airport. During the trial’s opening statements, defence attorney Geremy Kamens told the judge that the Afghan national gave “false testimony” and that his confessions had been fabricated. If convicted, the Afghan national could face lifetime imprisonment.
“The US government got the wrong man,” defence attorney Geremy Kamens reportedly stated. “That is why we are proud to represent Mohammad Sharifullah in this trial,” he continued to add.
Prosecutors: Afghan Man Confessed To Killing American “Crusaders”
Prosecutors allege that the accused Afghan national was not only aware of the bombing plot but played a role in the logistics of the attack at the Hamid Karzai International Airport.
Justice Department prosecutor John Gibbs argued that Sharifullah had confessed to a journalist that he had killed the American “crusaders” who invaded his homeland, Afghanistan, following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on American soil.
“The feeling was just to catch the crusaders and kill them,” Gibbs said Sharifullah told the journalist.
The prosecutors said that Sharifullah, in his own statements made previously, had admitted to coordinating the attack at the Abbey Gate. He had scouted a route near the airport for the attacker to unfold the blast. He also checked for law enforcement, as well as tracked the American and the Taliban checkpoints to make sure that the routes were clear. He relayed the information back to the attacker so he would not be detected, the prosecutors said.
Separately, he told the FBI that he had remained in prison for up to two weeks before the Kabul bombing, and following his release, he was provided with the motorcycle and a cellphone by his recruiters.
(Screengrab from a US Marine’s GoPro footage of the 2021 Kabul bomb blast at the Abbey Gate. Credit: X)
According to Gibbs, while in custody, Sharifullah gave five different interviews to the FBI; he was talkative to the authorities. Two of those interviews were conducted on the ground in Pakistan, and the other two onboard flight from the Middle East to the US. At least one interview was conducted while he was in the United States.
“You will hear his words, and you will see a great deal of evidence of his guilt,” Gibbs said in his opening statement.
The investigation was commended by the then Commander of US Central Command (CENTCOM), General Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie, who helped oversee the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. “This was a terrible attack that resulted in tragic outcomes and a horrific loss of life, both Afghan and American,” McKenzie reportedly stated. “While nothing can bring back the 11 Marines, one soldier and one sailor that we tragically lost in this attack, it is important that we fully understand what happened. Their sacrifice demands nothing less.”
Federal public defender Kamens argued that all the statements by the Afghan national were made under duress, and that the American authorities got the wrong man. “This man, Mohammad Sharifullah, had nothing to do with it,” Kamens reportedly told the federal prosecutors. “The question in this case is not really about what happened. But about who is responsible,” he added.
(Mohammad Sharifullah, the accused in the 2021 bombing of the Kabul airport, in the US custody. Credit: X/Kash Patel)
Sharifullah was being tried not only for the Abbey Gate bombing but also for other attacks. His attorney appears to place the blame for it on the Taliban, discussing the group’s influence in Afghanistan in the days that led up to the attack. The Afghan national confessed to joining the ISIS’ regional branch around 2016. His capture was announced by the US President Donald Trump during the State of the Union address in March 2025.
Taliban Claims To Have Killed ‘Mastermind’ Of Kabul Bombing
In April 2023, the Taliban claimed that it killed an ISIS-K figure who the group described as the “mastermind” of the Abbey Gate attack. This, said the Taliban, was achieved without the US involvement.
The bomber detonated an explosive within the crowd at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport’s perimeter as the US troops were securing the exit at the gate. The then White House National Security Spokesman, John Kirby, stated that the leader of the Islamic State (ISIS) cell that planned the brutal attack was killed by Taliban authorities.
“He was a key ISIS-K official directly involved in plotting operations like Abbey Gate, and now is no longer able to plot or conduct attacks,” Kirby, at the time, told a press conference. “He was killed in a Taliban operation,” Kirby added without giving further details.
