ALEXANDRIA, VA. — A federal jury in Alexandria, Virginia, convicted Mohammad Sharifullah on April 29, 2026, of a conspiracy charge in the suicide bombing at Kabul airport that killed approximately 160 Afghan civilians and 13 U.S. service members during the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. The jury also convicted him of providing material support to ISIS-K, the regional branch of the Islamic State.

Sharifullah faces a maximum prison sentence of 20 years. He could have faced a life sentence if jurors had unanimously found that deaths resulted from his conspiracy, but the jury deadlocked on that sentencing-enhancing element.

The jury deliberated for roughly eight hours over two days. Jurors told U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga that they quickly decided unanimously to convict Sharifullah of conspiracy but could not agree on whether deaths resulted from it. Trenga rejected the prosecution's request to give jurors more time to deliberate and did not immediately set a sentencing date.

U.S. troops were conducting an evacuation operation at Kabul airport when a lone suicide bomber detonated an improvised explosive device near the Abbey Gate entry point on August 26, 2021. A U.S. Central Command review found that the bomber was Abdul Rahman al-Logari, an Islamic State group militant released from an Afghan prison by the Taliban. The review concluded that snipers had not seen the actual bomber and that the attack was not preventable.

Sharifullah did not testify at his weeklong trial and showed no visible reaction to the verdict. Justice Department prosecutor Ryan White said Sharifullah played a crucial role in planning the Abbey Gate bombing and was involved in other ISIS-K attacks, including the March 2024 attack at a Moscow concert hall that killed roughly 140 people. "The defendant thought nothing of killing." White said. "For him, it was just another day at the office."

White told jurors during closing arguments that Sharifullah's own statements were sufficient to convict. "The defendant told you everything you need to know," he said.

Defense attorney Lauren Rosen argued that prosecutors failed to present any evidence linking Sharifullah to the bombing aside from his own statements during FBI questioning, suggesting he may have told agents what he thought they wanted to hear because he feared being tortured in Pakistani custody. Rosen also said that U.S. authorities accepted ISIS propaganda at face value when the group claimed responsibility, and that militants from a Taliban offshoot manning Abbey Gate could have been involved. "The government has told you nothing about how this attack actually happened," she said. "That's what the prosecution is asking you to do."