Mohammad Sharifullah has been sentenced to 20 years in prison in the United States for providing material support to ISIS-K, the Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan linked to the 2021 Kabul airport bombing.
A federal jury in Virginia convicted Sharifullah in April, but could not agree that he was responsible for deaths resulting from the attack at Abbey Gate on 26 August 2021.
The bombing killed 13 US service members and about 160 Afghans during the chaotic American military withdrawal from Afghanistan. Sharifullah, 28, was accused of scouting a route to Hamid Karzai International Airport before the attack.
US District Judge Anthony Trenga imposed the maximum sentence for the single count. He described Sharifullah as a “dedicated terrorist” and said he had shown no remorse for the “unfathomable” suffering caused.
Sharifullah did not give evidence during the trial and declined to address the court before sentencing. He was captured near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in early 2025 by Pakistani intelligence and the CIA before being extradited to the US.
Several relatives of American service members killed at Abbey Gate delivered victim impact statements. Mark Schmitz, whose 20-year-old son, Marine Corps Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz, died in the attack, asked Sharifullah to look at him as he described the loss of his child.
“They may have taken his life, but they’ll never take his legacy,” Mr Schmitz said. “A bomb killed my son. It did not kill what he stood for.”
Paula Knauss-Selph, whose son Army Staff Sergeant Ryan Knauss was also killed, said her family had been “forever changed” by the bombing.
“No justice will ever be enough to mend my broken heart,” she said.
Prosecutors had sought a 20-year term, while Sharifullah’s lawyers asked for 17 years. His defence team said he had never been an ISIS-K leader and had not been convicted of conduct directly connected to the airport bombing.
His lawyers argued that the government had been unable to prove its theory that he participated in the Abbey Gate attack. They said the only evidence linking him to the bombing came from statements made during hours of FBI questioning, while he was afraid of being tortured in Pakistani custody.
Prosecutors said Sharifullah had pledged allegiance to ISIS-K as a teenager and spent almost a decade supporting the group. They alleged that his activities included surveillance, transporting suicide bombers or weapons and communicating with attackers.
In the lead-up to the Kabul airport bombing, prosecutors said, he checked a route for Taliban checkpoints and told ISIS-K leaders that it was clear. Hours later, an ISIS-K operative named Abdul Rahman al-Logari detonated the bomb.
Sharifullah was also accused of aiding other attacks, including a 2016 suicide bombing targeting security guards at the Canadian embassy in Kabul and the 2024 assault on a concert hall in Moscow, in which roughly 140 people were killed.
Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Eisenberg said Sharifullah had provided “critical support” for attacks against civilians around the world and had ultimately contributed to the deaths at Abbey Gate. The jury, however, did not reach a unanimous decision on whether deaths at the airport resulted from the conspiracy, which meant he avoided the possibility of a life sentence.
