An operative of the militant Islamic State (IS) group who allegedly helped carry out the 2021 suicide bombing outside Kabul airport during the chaotic US military withdrawal from Afghanistan appeared in a Virginia court on Wednesday.

Mohammad Sharifullah has confessed to scouting out the route to the airport, where the suicide bomber later detonated his device among packed crowds trying to flee days after the Afghan Taliban seized control of Kabul, the Justice Department said.

The blast at the Abbey Gate killed at least 170 Afghans as well as 13 US troops who were securing the airport’s perimeter.

Sharifullah appeared in a court in Alexandria, near the US capital Washington, wearing light blue prison garb and a black face mask. He was officially appointed a public defender and provided with an interpreter.

He did not enter a plea. His next appearance will be in the same courthouse on March 10 (Monday), and he will stay in custody until then, the judge said.

Sharifullah — who the US says also goes by the name Jafar and is a member of the militant Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) branch in Afghanistan and Pakistan — was detained by Pakistani authorities and brought to the United States.

President Donald Trump triumphantly announced his arrest on Wednesday in an address to Congress, calling him “the top terrorist responsible for that atrocity”.

IS-K terrorists gave Sharifullah a cellphone and a SIM card and told him to check the route to the airport, according to the Justice Department’s affidavit in the case.

When he gave it the all-clear, they told him to leave the area, it said.

“Later that same day, Sharifullah learned of the attack at HKIA described above and recognised the alleged bomber as an ISIS-K operative he had known while incarcerated,” the affidavit said, using an alternative acronym for the group.

Sharifullah is charged with “providing and conspiring to provide material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organisation resulting in death”.

Trump thanked Islamabad “for helping arrest this monster”.

“This evil ISIS-K terrorist orchestrated the brutal murder of 13 heroic Marines,” US Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.

During a weekly press briefing today, Foreign Office spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan highlighted Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar’s telephone call with US National Security Adviser (NSA) Michael Waltz on February 4.

“The US NSA conveyed President Trump’s appreciation and thanks for the government of Pakistan’s efforts in countering terrorism.

“[Dar] congratulated the NSA on the assumption of office and reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to continue its cooperation with the US in the field of counterterrorism,” Shafqat said.

He added that the Deputy PM Dar also appreciated Trump’s announcement to “withdraw the US military equipment left behind in Afghanistan”.

Moscow attack link

Sharifullah also admitted to involvement in several other attacks, the Justice Department said, including the March 2024 Moscow Crocus City Hall attack, in which he said “he had shared instructions on how to use AK-style rifles and other weapons to would-be attackers” by video.

The United States withdrew its last troops from Afghanistan in August 2021, ending a chaotic evacuation of tens of thousands of Afghans who had rushed to Kabul’s airport in the hope of boarding a flight out of the country.

Images of crowds storming the airport, climbing onto aircraft as they took off — and some clinging to a departing US military cargo plane as it rolled down the runway — aired on news bulletins around the world.

In 2023, the White House announced that an IS official involved in plotting the airport attack had been killed in an operation by Afghanistan’s new Taliban government.

‘Leverage US concerns’

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had thanked Trump yesterday for acknowledging his country’s role in counter-terrorism efforts in Afghanistan, and promised to “continue to partner closely with the United States” in a post on X.

Pakistan’s strategic importance has waned since the withdrawal of the US and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) from Afghanistan, which has seen violence rebound in the border regions.

Tensions between the neighboring countries have soared, with Islamabad accusing Kabul of failing to root out terrorists sheltering on Afghan soil who launch attacks on Pakistan.

The interim Afghan Taliban government denies the charges and in a statement said Sharifullah’s arrest “is proof” that IS-K hideouts are on Pakistani soil.

IS-K, which has claimed several recent attacks in Afghanistan, has staged a growing number of bloody international assaults, including killing more than 90 people in an Iranian bombing last year.

Michael Kugelman, South Asia Institute director at the Wilson Center, said on X that Pakistan was trying to “leverage US concerns about terror in Afghanistan and pitch a renewed security partnership”.