Mohammed Sharifullah, an Afghan national and member of the terrorist organisation ISIS-K, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Wednesday, 16 September 2026, for providing material support to the group in connection with the Abbey Gate bombing in Kabul.
The sentence followed Sharifullah’s conviction on 29 April 2026 for his participation in a nearly 10 year conspiracy to provide material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organisation. The 20-year term was the maximum available after jurors deadlocked on whether his support directly resulted in the deaths caused by the attack.
Sharifullah could have faced a possible life sentence if the jury had unanimously found that deaths resulted from the conspiracy. Jurors did convict him of providing material support to ISIS-K, but did not agree on whether that conduct was directly responsible for the deaths of 13 American service members and approximately 160 Afghan civilians.
Judge Anthony Trenga said there was 'no doubt' that Sharifullah was a 'dedicated terrorist'. Family members of the 13 service members killed in the attack had urged the judge to impose the maximum prison time of 20 years.
The bombing took place at approximately 5:36 p.m. on 26 August 2021, at Abbey Gate during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. American and other Coalition military forces were conducting a non-combatant evacuation operation at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul when ISIS-K operative Abdul Rahman al-Logari detonated a body-worn suicide bomb.
The attack killed 13 U.S. military service members and approximately 160 civilians. It also wounded 45 American service members and injured more than 160 civilians.
The case against Sharifullah concerned support he provided before the explosion. ISIS-K leadership had tasked him with checking a road leading to Hamid Karzai International Airport for Taliban checkpoints. At about 2:00 pm on 26 August 2021, Sharifullah travelled along his assigned route and told ISIS-K leadership that it was clear.
Sharifullah knew al-Logari from the time the two men spent together in an Afghan prison. The available account does not specify the route Sharifullah checked, the jury’s reasoning on causation, or the roles of other ISIS-K members in planning the attack.
His conduct extended beyond the Abbey Gate attack. Sharifullah participated in over a dozen ISIS-K attacks from 2016 through his apprehension in 2025. His work for the organisation included providing surveillance for attacks, transporting suicide bombers, transporting and cleaning armaments, passing messages among ISIS-K personnel, and filming explosions for ISIS-K propaganda purposes.
The jury’s deadlock drew a legal distinction between proving participation in a material-support conspiracy and proving, unanimously, that the conspiracy caused the deaths at Abbey Gate. The conviction established Sharifullah’s role in supporting ISIS-K. The unresolved causation finding prevented the possible life sentence and left Judge Trenga to impose the maximum 20-year term.
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