ISIS-K Member Sentenced in Abbey Gate Case
PHOTO CAPTION: Mohammad Sharifullah during his extradition to the United States on March 4, 2025. Credit: FBI Director Kash Patel/X.
An ISIS-K member prosecuted in connection with the Abbey Gate bombing was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison on Sept. 16, bringing a new outcome to a case stemming from the attack during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Mohammad Sharifullah received the maximum sentence available for his conviction, according to The Associated Press. U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga imposed the sentence in Alexandria, Virginia.
The difference between 20 years and a possible life sentence came down to a question the jury could not resolve.
Jurors convicted Sharifullah on April 29 of conspiring to provide material support to ISIS-K. But they could not unanimously determine that deaths at Kabul’s airport resulted from that conspiracy. Without that finding, his conviction carried a maximum of 20 years rather than a potential life sentence.
The Aug. 26, 2021, suicide bombing killed 13 U.S. service members and approximately 160 civilians as American and coalition forces evacuated people from Hamid Karzai International Airport.
Prosecutors said ISIS-K assigned Sharifullah to check a road leading to the airport for Taliban checkpoints. According to the Justice Department’s account of the trial evidence, he traveled the route and reported that it was clear several hours before the explosion.
ISIS-K operative Abdul Rahman al-Logari carried out the suicide bombing. Prosecutors said Sharifullah knew him from their time in an Afghan prison.
The defense disputed the government’s account of Sharifullah’s role. His attorneys argued that statements obtained during FBI questioning were unreliable and lacked independent corroboration tying him to the bombing.
The prosecution covered a broader conspiracy beyond Abbey Gate. The Justice Department said Sharifullah’s activities included surveillance, transporting suicide bombers, handling weapons and recording attacks for ISIS-K propaganda.
Authorities also accused him of assisting a 2016 attack against Nepali guards protecting the Canadian embassy in Kabul and supplying weapons-use instructions to attackers involved in the March 2024 Crocus City Hall massacre near Moscow.
Sharifullah was brought to the United States from Pakistan in March 2025.
Wednesday’s sentencing is the new development. The bombing occurred in 2021, and the jury’s split finding came in April. His conviction establishes his participation in the ISIS-K support conspiracy; it does not establish a unanimous jury finding that the Abbey Gate deaths resulted from it.
(Source: OAF Nation)
