Mohammad Sharifullah, of Afghanistan, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Wednesday for supporting Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham-Khorasan Province, or ISIS-K, and taking part in “a nearly 10-year conspiracy to provide material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization,” the U.S. Justice Department said on Wednesday.
“Sharifullah spent nearly a decade at the heart of a horrific campaign of terror, providing critical support for attacks against civilians around the world and, ultimately, contributed to the deaths of 13 U.S. service members and dozens of others at Abbey Gate,” stated John Eisenberg, U.S. assistant attorney general for national security.
The sentenced “holds him accountable for the blood on his hands,” Eisenberg stated. “The United States will pursue, capture and bring to justice anyone, anywhere in the world, who takes part in the killing of our service members or citizens.”
Theophani Stamos, first assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, stated that Sharifullah “has dedicated his life to violence and murder for the sake of hatred.”
“We cannot restore the lives he has taken, but we can bring a measure of justice to the families who lost so much on that day,” she said.
The Justice Department said that leaders of ISIS-K told Sharifullah to check a road to Hamid Karzai International Airport—now Kabul International Airport—for Taliban checkpoints. After he told the terror leaders that it was clear, “ISIS-K operative Abdul Rahman al-Logari, whom Sharifullah knew previously from their time together in an Afghan prison, detonated a body-worn suicide bomb at Abbey Gate, killing 13 U.S. military service members and approximately 160 civilians,” the Justice Department said.
At the time, on Aug. 26, 2021, “American and other coalition military forces were conducting a non-combatant evacuation operation at the Abbey Gate” at the airport, and “thousands of civilians were at Abbey Gate for evacuation,” the Justice Department said. It added that Sharifullah helped a suicide bomber prepare, and drove the attacker to the site, on June 20, 2016, when the suicide bomber detonated and targeted Nepali guards at the Canadian embassy in Kabul.
Sharifullah also taught ISIS-K gunmen how to use AK-style rifles and communicated with them during the attack, as they killed more than 100 civilians near Moscow on March 22, 2024, the department said.
“In all, Sharifullah participated in over a dozen ISIS-K attacks from 2016 through his eventual apprehension in 2025,” the Justice Department said. “Throughout these attacks, Sharifullah was involved in various aspects of ISIS-K operations, including providing surveillance for attacks, transporting suicide bombers, transporting and cleaning armaments, communicating messages among ISIS-K personnel and video recording explosions for ISIS-K propaganda purposes.”
