The State Department has announced a multimillion-dollar reward for information leading to the identification of Afghanistan’s top ISIS militant and anyone involved in the August bombing that killed more than a dozen U.S. troops.
The agency announced a $10 million bounty on Monday through the Rewards for Justice program, which is administered via the Diplomatic Security Service, specifically for ISIS-K leader Sanaullah Ghafari, who is also known as Shahab al Muhajir.
Ghafari was appointed to lead ISIS-K in June 2020 and, according to the State Department, is “responsible for approving all ISIS-K operations throughout Afghanistan,” which includes the Aug. 26 bombing at the Kabul airport while the United States and other Western countries were evacuating third-country nationals and Afghan allies who were at risk under the new Taliban regime. They evacuated more than 120,000 during the month of August, which ended with the U.S. military leaving Afghanistan completely for the first time in nearly 20 years.
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The Department of Defense announced last Friday that an investigation into the bombing concluded that the bomber acted alone, which contradicted previous statements. The bomber’s device contained ball bearings to maximize harm, and it also led U.S. officials to believe, at the time, that there were additional ISIS militants shooting at troops following the explosion.
“It was a single blast, and it did not have a follow attack,” Brig. Gen. Lance Curtis, the lead investigator, told reporters. “There were a series of crossing fires to the front of the service members on the ground that created the illusion that there was a complex attack, but there absolutely was not.”
Gen. Frank McKenzie, the head of U.S. Central Command, described the “disturbing lethality” of the explosive, which injured 58 soldiers, a number McKenzie used on Friday that was higher than previous reports, was on display given “the universal wear of body armor and helmets that did stop ball bearings that impacted them but could not prevent catastrophic injuries to areas not covered.”
In the days before the blast, President Joe Biden and a variety of other administration officials warned that such an attack was imminent, and the military was able to thwart another attack days later when rockets were fired at the airport.
The U.S. launched an airstrike days later, which it believed would neutralize an immediate threat to the airport, though it targeted a civilian aid worker who did not pose a risk to the evacuation. Zemari Ahmadi, the target who in all actuality had no terror ties, was killed along with nine other civilians, including his children. No military personnel faced legal or professional consequences as a result of the strike, though Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has announced plans to emphasize the importance of preventing civilian casualties.
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The State Department’s reward also comes days after the U.S. saw another top ISIS leader killed.
U.S. Special Forces operators closed Abu Ibrahim al Qurashi, the leader of the Islamic State, in a residential building in northwest Syria, which is when he detonated a bomb, killing himself and his family. No U.S. forces were injured during the mission, and there are contradictory reports about the number of civilian casualties, all of which the DOD said are attributable to the bomb Qurashi set off.
