A federal judge in Virginia has handed down the maximum 20-year prison sentence to Mohammad Sharifullah, an Afghan national and ISIS-K member convicted for his role in the deadly Abbey Gate bombing at Kabul's airport. Prosecutors said Sharifullah scouted the route the suicide bomber used to reach the crowded gate on August 26, 2021, then relayed word back to ISIS-K leadership that the path was clear. That attack killed 13 American service members, 11 Marines, a Navy corpsman, and an Army soldier, along with roughly 160 Afghan civilians, in the chaotic final days of the U.S. withdrawal under President Biden. A jury convicted him in April of providing material support to the terrorist group but could not agree on whether his actions directly caused the deaths, a deadlock that took a possible life sentence off the table.

Sharifullah was captured in a joint Pakistani-CIA operation and extradited to the United States in March, where he was held without bail ahead of trial. During sentencing, prosecutors pushed for the full 20 years while his defense sought 17, arguing he was never an ISIS-K leader and had not been convicted of conduct tied directly to the bombing itself. U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga ultimately sided with prosecutors, closing out one of the most closely watched terrorism prosecutions in recent years. For many families of the fallen, the sentence offers a measure of accountability, even as some argue that nothing short of a life term could match the scale of the loss.