Afghan Man Convicted in Kabul Airport Bombing

0:00On April 29th, an Afghan man named Mohammad Sharifullah just got convicted on conspiracy charges tied to that deadly suicide bombing at Kabul airport. During the U.S. pullout, it happened on August 26, 2021, killing around 160 Afghans and 13 American troops at the Avigade entry point. The jury in Virginia nailed him for giving material support to ISIS-K, the Islamic State branch behind it, and he's facing up to 20 years in. Prison. The trial lasted a week, but Sharifullah didn't take the stand. Jurors took about 8 hours over 2 days to agree unanimously on the conspiracy count, though they deadlocked on whether the deaths directly came, from his actions, that could have meant life in prison. The judge shut down a push for more deliberation time. Prosecutors painted him as a key planner in the attack, and other ISIS-K hits, like the Moscow Concert Hall bombing, that killed about 140 people last March. His defense team argued there was no hard evidence beyond what he said to FBI agents, claiming

1:04he just told them what they wanted to hear out of fear. Sharifullah showed no reaction when the verdict dropped. This ties back to the chaos of the Afghanistan withdrawal, with the bomber being in ISIS militant the Taliban had freed from prison. Someone. Sharifullah knew from his own time locked up. Reviews cleared U.S. forces of preventing it, despite some early warnings that didn't pan out. Sharifullah's sentencing date is still pending, but this conviction underscores how those 2021 shadows from the airport still fuel the fight against groups like ISIS-K years later. National News. Powered by AI. This is U.S. News Today. I'm Corey with The Story.