US Arrests ISIS-K Terrorist, but Many Questions Arise

WASHINGTON DC, United States (Kurdistan 24) - Mohammad Sharifullah, a member of ISIS-Khorasan (ISIS-K), was arrested in Pakistan earlier this week and brought to the U.S. to stand trial for his alleged role in the August 20, 2021, bombing outside Kabul’s international airport that killed 13 U.S. service members, along with some 160 Afghans. 

The Biden administration was bringing an end to America’s role in the two decades-long Afghan war. It was evacuating U.S. forces, along with Afghans who had assisted them, when the attack occurred.

The bloody assault came to be seen as emblematic of the hasty U.S. withdrawal, if not emblematic of America’s venture in Afghanistan itself—which ended in a Taliban victory.

Sharifullah’s arrest came about, according to a U.S. official cited by the Associated Press, “After fresh U.S.intelligence community coordination, increased intelligence sharing and pressure on regional partners to bring those responsible for the attack to account”—which began after Trump took office.

Sharifullah was captured in Pakistan’s southwestern province of Baluchistan, AP reported, although he is said to be Afghan.

It might be noted that the mastermind of the 1993 bombing of New York’s World Trade Center, Ramzi Yousef, and the 9/11 mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, are both Baluch.

The Baluch are Sunni Muslims. They have a compact territory, which lies predominantly in eastern Iran and western Pakistan. But Baluchistan also includes a small part in Afghanistan. Possibly, Sharifullah is Baluch.

Read More: Revisiting Ramzi Yousef’s terrorism: World Trade Center bombing and Philippines plane bombing plot

Charges against Sharifullah

The U.S. charges against Sharifullah are laid out in an FBI complaint, which is based to a large extent on the FBI’s questioning of him in Pakistan.

That questioning occurred before he was brought to the U.S., where he would have had a lawyer.

Moreover, it is entirely possible, if not likely, that Sharifullah was subject to a harsh interrogation, while he was in Pakistani custody, before he was turned over to the FBI.

Thus, what Sharifullah told the FBI may well have been a repetition of what he had told the Pakistanis. After all, his statements were extraordinarily incriminating, and it is difficult to understand why someone would freely say what he did.

Thus, it is virtually impossible for an independent observer to judge the truth of Saifullah’s statements. 

That is obvious. Yet virtually no U.S. media has made this point.

The FBI complaint, based on Sharifullah’s statements, describes three ISIS attacks in which he was involved: 1) June 20, 2016, bombing of guards for the Canadian embassy in Kabul; 2) August 26, 2021, attack on the Abbey Gate of the Kabul international airport; and 3) March 22, 2024, attack on popular concert venue in Moscow.

Sharifullah told the FBI that he was recruited into ISIS-K in 2016 and assisted the individual who was the suicide bomber in ISIS's June 20, 2016, attack on guards for the Canadian embassy in Kabul.

According to Sharifullah, he transported the bomber to the place of the attack, which was not carried out at the embassy. Rather, it killed the guards—sixteen Nepalese soldiers—as they rode in a mini-bus on their way to the embassy.

ISIS took credit for the attack, claiming it had struck U.S. embassy guards. But ISIS had the embassy wrong. They had killed guards at the Canadian embassy!

The August 26, 2021, attack on the Abbey Gate at Kabul’s International Airport killed 13 U.S. servicemen and over 160 Afghans.

This attack was also carried out by a suicide bomber. Sharifullah told the FBI that he had scouted the route for the bomber to take to get to the crowded airport entry gate, while avoiding checkpoints.

Finally, as the FBI complaint details, Sharifullah was also linked to the March 22, 2024, attack on the Crocus City Hall, a popular concert venue near Moscow. That bombing killed some 130 people.

As the FBI complaint explains, Sharifullah said that he “received an order from a known ISIS-K senior leader to provide instructions on how to properly use AK-style rifles and other weapons to would-be attackers in Moscow.”

He shared videos with the plotters, and after the attack, he recognized two of the gunmen arrested by Russian authorities.

But, as noted above, it is virtually impossible to know what, if anything, about these charges is true. They are all based on Sharifullah’s  own statements.

Understanding (and Misunderstanding) ISIS and ISIS-K

More reliable is the background on ISIS and its origins, as provided in the FBI complaint.

The complaint recounts that already on Oct. 15, 2004—some 18 months after the U.S.-led war against Saddam Hussein began—the State Department designated Al-Qaida in Iraq (AQI) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO.)

That, in itself, was contrary to the expectations of the George W. Bush administration, as it launched the war. It believed that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and his regime would be quick and easy.

But the war was neither quick nor easy. It persisted until 2011, when President Barack Obama, who, as a senator, had opposed going to war in Iraq, withdrew U.S. troops from that country.

Yet as the FBI complaint explains, AQI became ISIS after Obama’s withdrawal of U.S. troops. This was explained by the State Department, as it modified its designation of AQI as an FTO. In 2014, as the State Department noted, AQI adopted a new name: ISIS. 

Most importantly, the core of that terrorist group—whether as AQI or ISIS—was the former Iraqi regime. That is essentially what the late Najmaldin Karim, who served as Governor of Kirkuk Province from 2011 to 2017, subsequently explained to Kurdistan 24.

Karim was careful to speak only about what he knew well: ISIS in Kirkuk. As he said, “99 percent [of ISIS in Kirkuk] are local people from Kirkuk.”

“People need to understand that before [ISIS], there was terrorism—in Baghdad, in Kirkuk, in Ramadi, in Fallujah, in Mosul. In all of these places, there were terrorists,” he continued.

“Who were these terrorists?” Karim asked. “They were al-Qaeda, Naqshbandis, who are remnants of the Ba’athists, Ansar al-Sunnah, Jund al-Islam—all these banded together under the leadership of [ISIS],” but “they’re all local people.”

Read More: Najmaldin Karim: Islamic State is resurgent, dominated by locals

Presumably, something similar could be said about ISIS elsewhere.

So what is the relationship between ISIS and ISIS-K? Does ISIS direct ISIS-K? Or did some people in Afghanistan just adopt the name, and there is no real relationship?

These are important questions, but too few people, at least in the U.S., are asking them, let alone trying to find answers to them.