An Islamic State group member was sentenced on Wednesday to 20 years in prison for aiding the terrorist organization that took credit for a suicide bombing that killed 13 US service members and about 160 Afghans at the Kabul airport five years ago during the U.S. military’s chaotic withdrawal from the country.
A federal jury in Virginia had convicted Mohammad Sharifullah in April of providing material support to the IS affiliate known as Islamic State Khorasan Province. But jurors could not agree whether he bore some responsibility for the airport bombing on 26 August 2021.
U.S. troops were conducting an evacuation operation at the airport when a 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 Donald Trump heralded last year during a speech to a joint session of Congress.
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