WASHINGTON, United States, April 30, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - A US federal jury convicted an Afghan man on Wednesday for his role in the 2021 suicide bombing at Kabul airport that killed at least 170 Afghans and 13 American troops.

Mohammad Sharifullah, a member of the Islamic State Khorasan (ISK) branch in Afghanistan and Pakistan, was convicted in Virginia of conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist organization.

According to prosecutors, Sharifullah scouted out the route to the airport where the suicide bomber later detonated his device among packed crowds trying to flee days after the Taliban seized control of Kabul.

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 hopes of boarding a flight out of the country.

Sharifullah was extradited to the United States from Pakistan in March 2025 and put on trial in a federal court in Alexandria on the outskirts of the US capital.

Sharifullah, who is also known as Jafar, faces up to 20 years in prison.

According to US authorities, Sharifullah was involved in a number of ISK attacks between 2016 and his arrest by Pakistani authorities in 2025.

They included a June 2016 suicide bombing that targeted Nepali security guards protecting the Canadian embassy in Kabul.

Sharifullah was accused of conducting surveillance and transporting the suicide bomber to the attack site.

He was also accused of giving weapons instructions to ISK gunmen who attacked the Crocus City Hall near Moscow in March 2024.