The Taliban have killed the “mastermind” behind the Kabul airport suicide attack in 2021 carried out by an ISIS-affiliated terrorist group that killed 13 U.S. troops and many more civilians during the United States’ chaotic evacuation from the country, U.S. officials said on Tuesday.
The bombing occurred on Aug. 26, 2021, as U.S. troops were trying to help Americans and Afghans flee in the chaotic aftermath of the Taliban’s takeover, and compounded America’s sense of defeat after 20 years of war.
“He was a key ISIS-K official directly involved in plotting operations like Abbey Gate, and now is no longer able to plot or conduct attacks,” White House spokesperson John Kirby said in a statement, referring to the Abbey Gate entrance to the Kabul airport where the blast occurred. He did not name the official.
“We have made good on the President’s pledge to establish an over-the-horizon capacity to monitor potential terrorist threats, not only from in Afghanistan but elsewhere around the world where that threat has metastasized as we have done in Somalia and Syria,” he added.
The Afghan affiliate of ISIS, known as Islamic State Khorasan, or ISIS-K, after an old name of the region, is an enemy of the Taliban. Terrorists loyal to ISIS first appeared in eastern Afghanistan in 2014 and later made inroads in other areas.
Late Tuesday night, Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder issued a statement confirming that the plotter had been killed by the Taliban. “The United States was not involved in this operation,” Ryder said.
Over the weekend, the U.S. military began to inform the parents of the 11 Marines, the sailor, and the soldier who were killed in the blast at Abbey Gate, and they shared the information in a private group messaging chat. The father of one of the Marines said the death of his son’s killer brings little comfort.
“Whatever happens, it’s not going to bring Taylor back and I understand that,” Darin Hoover, the father of Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover, said in a phone call with The Associated Press. “About the only thing his mom and I can do now is be an advocate for him. All we want is the truth. And we’re not getting it. That’s the frustrating part.”
The blast at Abbey Gate came hours after Western officials warned of a major attack, urging people to leave the airport. But that advice went largely unheeded by Afghans desperate to escape the country in the last few days of an American-led evacuation before the U.S. officially ended its 20-year presence.
