Washington:
An Islamic State operative allegedly responsible for a deadly 2021 suicide bombing outside Kabul airport during the chaotic US military withdrawal has been arrested, President Donald Trump said Tuesday.
The bomber detonated a device among packed crowds as they tried to flee Afghanistan on August 26, 2021.
The blast killed some 170 Afghans and 13 US troops securing the perimeter.
In April 2023, the White House announced that an Islamic State official involved in plotting the attack had been killed in an operation by Afghanistan’s new Taliban government.
On Tuesday, in his first address to Congress since returning to the White House for a second term, Trump announced that Pakistan had assisted in the arrest of “the top terrorist responsible for that atrocity.”
“And he is right now on his way here to face the swift sword of American justice,” he said, taking a swipe at his predecessor Joe Biden’s oversight of the “disastrous and incompetent withdrawal from Afghanistan.”
He thanked Pakistan “for helping arrest this monster” but gave no details of the suspect or the arrest operation.
A report by the US news platform Axios identified the suspect as Mohammad Sharifullah, also known as Jafar, a leader of the Islamic State branch in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Citing two unidentified US officials, Axios said Sharifullah is in the process of being extradited from Pakistan to the United States and is expected to arrive on Wednesday.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
