Taliban killed ISIS-K cell leader behind Kabul airport bombing: Pentagon
Jerry Dunleavy
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The U.S. military spent Tuesday alerting the families of the 13 U.S. service members killed in the ISIS-K suicide bombing at the Kabul airport in August 2021 that the Taliban had recently killed an alleged terrorist cell leader behind the attack.
The ISIS-K suicide attack killed 11 Marines, one Navy hospitalman, and one Army staff sergeant and wounded 45 more U.S. troops at the Hamid Karzai International Airport on Aug. 26, 2021, amid a chaotic and disastrous U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Nearly 200 Afghans were also killed, and dozens more were wounded in the blast as the United States led evacuation operations while the Taliban, including Haqqani Taliban faction forces, provided security outside the airport.
BIDEN ADMIN WON’T IDENTIFY KABUL AIRPORT SUICIDE BOMBER
A U.S. defense official told the Washington Examiner on Tuesday that the Taliban had killed an ISIS-K member in recent days and that “this was the individual we assess was most responsible for the August 26 bombing at Abbey Gate.” The official described the terrorist as a “planner” but declined to provide the specific identity of the ISIS-K member, saying, “I would not expect a name to be released.”
The official also said the U.S. “did not provide any assistance to the Taliban” and called it “purely a Taliban operation.” The official added that “we don’t make it a practice to announce or speak to Taliban operations,” but “we wanted the American people to know” about the news and wanted the families of the 13 U.S. service members to “know first.”
Darin Hoover, the father of Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover, one of the Marines killed in the bombing, told the Washington Examiner on Tuesday that the news of the Taliban killing an ISIS-K terrorist involved in the attack was delivered to him by the same Marine colonel who had visited him after his son was killed in August 2021.
“The intelligence that they have gotten is that the leader of the ISIS cell that planned the bombing at Abbey Gate has been killed by the Taliban,” Hoover said of the short briefing he was given by the military.
“I think that the White House is looking for anything at this point to get away from this and take a victory lap and say, ‘Yep, we got the guy or the Taliban got the guy who is responsible for all this,’ and try to put this behind them,” Hoover said.
More than a year and a half after the bombing, the Biden administration has not publicly identified the suicide bomber behind the deadly attack despite numerous reports and anonymous officials saying the attack was carried out by Abdul Rahman al Logari, who had been freed from prison at the abandoned Bagram Airfield in August 2021 when the Taliban took over Afghanistan.
The U.S. defense official again declined to name Logari on Tuesday, saying, “We defer to the FBI’s investigation on that, so you would have to talk to them.”
Hoover said the military “refused” to give him the name of the ISIS-K terrorist whom the Taliban had recently killed and that “if he did have it, he said he probably couldn’t give it to me.”
“He couldn’t tell me the details of the operation — he didn’t have that — and again, even if he did, he said he probably couldn’t give it to protect the sources it came from but that they have several different sources that they have verified this with and that those sources are very trusted — but that the leader has been killed by the Taliban,” Hoover added.
“Any time a terrorist is taken off the board is a good day. But this doesn’t diminish the Biden administration’s culpability for failures that led to the attack on Abbey Gate and will in no way deter the committee’s investigation,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told the Washington Examiner on Tuesday. “I will not sleep until every stone is unturned and these Gold Star families have answers — and justice.”
Marine Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews, who was at Hamid Karzai International Airport during the bombing, testified in March that, ahead of the ISIS-K attack, he asked for permission to take a shot at a suspicious man who matched the description of a potential ISIS-K suicide bomber, but that permission was denied.
Vargas-Andrews, who is now a double amputee as a result of the bombing, told the House last month that his team leader had the potential suicide bomber in his sights and was ready to take the shot but that the battalion commander said he didn’t know if they were permitted to take the possible bomber out.
“Plain and simple, we were ignored,” Vargas-Andrews testified in March. “Our expertise was disregarded. No one was held accountable for our safety.”
Retired Marine Corps Gen. Frank McKenzie, formerly the leader of U.S. Central Command, told the Washington Examiner last month that “I’m not aware of any reporting from any source any time that would corroborate that.”
Days after the ISIS-K bombing, a botched U.S. military airstrike in Kabul on Aug. 29 killed an innocent aid worker and numerous family members of his.
The State Department announced in February 2022 that it was offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the identification or location of ISIS-K leader Sanaullah Ghafari, also known as Shahab al Muhajir, and for information leading to the arrest or conviction of those responsible for the Abbey Gate bombing.
Logari is said to have previously been held at Parwan Detention Facility, next to Bagram Air Base, which was abandoned by the U.S. in July 2021, but he was subsequently released by the Taliban when they took over Afghanistan in mid-August 2021.
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ISIS-K claimed credit for the attack and named Logari within hours as the terrorist who had carried out the “martyrdom operation” at the Kabul airport, with ISIS’s Amaq News Agency recounting the terrorist group’s narrative.
The 13 U.S. troops killed in the blast include Hoover, Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo, Sgt. Nicole Gee, Cpl. Hunter Lopez, Cpl. Daegan Page, Cpl. Humberto Sanchez, Lance Cpl. David Espinoza, Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum, Lance Cpl. Dylan Merola, and Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui. Navy hospitalman Maxton Soviak was also among those killed, as was Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Christian Knauss.