ISIS K Member Sentenced to 20 Years in Kabul Airport Case
Wertynews.com – An ISIS K member sentenced to 20 years in federal prison has received the maximum penalty for providing material support to the terrorist group connected to the 2021 suicide bombing at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport. Mohammad Sharifullah was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga after a Virginia jury convicted him on a single count.
The case concerned Sharifullah’s support for ISIS-K, the Afghanistan-based affiliate of the Islamic State group, during the final stages of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. He was 28 at the time of sentencing.
Abbey Gate Bombing Remains Central to the Case
On Aug. 26, 2021, a suicide bomber struck crowds near Abbey Gate at Kabul’s airport as U.S. personnel helped evacuate Americans, Afghan allies and other civilians. Thirteen American service members and roughly 160 Afghans were killed in the attack.
Prosecutors said Sharifullah scouted a route to the airport, checked for Taliban checkpoints and told ISIS-K leaders that the route was clear. Hours later, an ISIS-K operative identified as Abdul Rahman al-Logari detonated an improvised explosive device near Abbey Gate.
A federal jury found Sharifullah guilty in April of materially supporting ISIS-K. Jurors did not unanimously determine that deaths from the Abbey Gate attack resulted from the conspiracy involving him. Such a finding could have made him eligible for a life sentence.
Defense lawyers argued that the government did not prove Sharifullah participated directly in the airport bombing. They requested a 17-year sentence and said he was neither an ISIS-K leader nor convicted of conduct directly tied to the explosion.
“He was brought here because the government believed he participated in the Abbey Gate attack, a theory which it was unable to prove at trial,” defense attorneys wrote.
Victims’ Families Speak at Sentencing
Parents of service members killed in the bombing addressed the court, describing the continuing loss their families have experienced. Mark Schmitz of Missouri spoke about his son, Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, who was 20 when he died at Abbey Gate.
“They may have taken his life, but they’ll never take his legacy,” Schmitz said. “A bomb killed my son. It did not kill what he stood for.”
Paula Knauss-Selph, mother of Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss, said the attack permanently changed her family. Judge Trenga called Sharifullah a committed terrorist and said he had shown no remorse for the suffering caused by his actions.
Sharifullah did not testify at trial and declined to speak before sentencing. He was captured in early 2025 near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in an operation involving Pakistani intelligence and the CIA, then extradited to the United States.
Prosecutors Cite Wider ISIS-K Activities
Prosecutors described the ISIS K member sentenced to 20 years as a longtime supporter of ISIS-K. They said he pledged allegiance to the group as a teenager and assisted its operations through surveillance, transportation of weapons or suicide bombers, and communications with attackers.
The government also linked Sharifullah to other ISIS-K operations, including the March 2024 attack on a Moscow concert hall that killed about 140 people and a 2016 suicide bombing targeting security guards outside the Canadian embassy in Kabul.
Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Eisenberg said Sharifullah had spent nearly a decade supporting violent terrorist activity and had helped attacks against civilians in multiple countries.
FAQ: What the U.S. Sentence Means
What was Sharifullah convicted of? He was convicted of providing material support to ISIS-K, a charge carrying a maximum 20-year federal prison sentence in this case.
Was he convicted of directly carrying out the Abbey Gate bombing? No. The jury convicted him of supporting ISIS-K but did not unanimously find that deaths from the bombing resulted from the conspiracy involving him.
Why did the court impose 20 years? The 20-year term was the maximum penalty available for Sharifullah’s single-count conviction. The ISIS K member sentenced to 20 years was not given a life sentence because the jury did not reach the additional finding that could have supported one.