Virginia jury convicts Afghan man linked to 2021 Kabul airport attack

April 29 (Reuters) - A federal ‌jury in ​Virginia ​on Wednesday convicted an Afghan man of conspiring to provide material support to a terrorist organization ‌in connection with the 2021 suicide bombing at Kabul ⁠airport that killed 13 U.S. service members and about 160 Afghan civilians.

But ‌the jury deadlocked on ‌whether his actions directly caused the deaths, sparing the defendant, Mohammad Sharifullah, from a possible life sentence. He still ​faces up to 20 years in prison. U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga did not immediately set a sentencing ⁠date.

The attack occurred on August 26, 2021, as U.S. forces were evacuating from Afghanistan ​at the end of America’s longest war. A suicide bomber detonated an explosive vest at Abbey ​Gate, killing 11 Marines, one Navy ‌corpsman and one Army soldier, along with an estimated 160 Afghan civilians.

Prosecutors said Sharifullah helped the ⁠Islamic State group’s Afghanistan affiliate, ISIS‑K, by conducting reconnaissance and facilitating communications ahead of the attack. Defense attorneys argued the government relied ⁠too heavily on Sharifullah’s own statements during FBI interrogations and failed to ​independently prove his role in the bombing.

The case marked the first U.S. criminal trial stemming from the Abbey Gate attack, a politically charged ‌episode that has continued to shape debate over how former President Joe Biden's administration withdrew from ‌Afghanistan.

Early in President Donald Trump's second term, Sharifullah was arrested ⁠in Pakistan, near the Afghan ‌border, by Pakistani ​security forces working with the FBI and CIA.

(Reporting by Daniel Trotta in Carlsbad, California; Editing by Stephen ‌Coates)

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