One year after the deadly ISIS-K suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members at the Kabul airport, the Biden administration has not publicly identified the bomber — despite numerous reports and anonymous officials saying the attack was carried out by Abdul Rahman al Logari, who had been freed from prison at the abandoned Bagram Airfield in August 2021 when the Taliban took over Afghanistan.
The attacker’s alleged identity is something of an open secret in national security circles and on Capitol Hill, but the Biden administration has continually refused to confirm that Logari was indeed the bomber who killed 13 U.S. troops and wounded 45 more. The Aug. 26, 2021, attack also killed nearly 200 Afghans and wounded dozens more as the United States led evacuation operations at the Hamid Karzai International Airport with the Taliban, including Haqqani Taliban faction forces, providing security outside the airport.
Logari is said to have previously been held at Parwan Detention Facility, next to Bagram Air Base, but was subsequently released by the Taliban when they took over Afghanistan in mid-August 2021 following a chaotic U.S. withdrawal. The Taliban, the Haqqani network, and al Qaeda are deeply intertwined in Afghanistan.
When asked about Logari’s identity, the State Department referred the Washington Examiner to spokesman Ned Price’s press briefing remarks on Monday related to an after-action review on Afghanistan being conducted. Price said, “We’d refer you to the Defense Department for anything further” on the Kabul bombing.
Price had said Monday that Secretary of State Antony Blinken had ordered an “after-action report … in the aftermath of the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan.” He added, “We wanted to see to it that the review could be as comprehensive and as accurate and reflective as possible. And so, for that reason, the review itself is classified.” Price said nothing specific about the bomber.
FBI DIRECTOR NOT SURPRISED ZAWAHIRI WAS IN HAQQANI HOME IN KABUL
The CIA declined to comment. The National Security Council did not respond to a request for comment.
A spokesperson for the Office of the Director for National Intelligence said, “We just don’t comment on intelligence matters” and referred the Washington Examiner to the Pentagon and FBI. White House deputy press secretary Chris Meagher told the Washington Examiner that he “would send you to DOD and FBI for this.”
A public affairs officer for the Pentagon, Army Maj. Rob Lodewick, told the Washington Examiner in February that “DoD has not confirmed this. I’d have to refer you to the FBI’s investigation on the matter.” A senior defense official told the Washington Examiner at the time that “due to sensitivities surrounding ongoing counterterrorism operations, we are unable to confirm the identity” of the suicide bomber.
The Pentagon did not provide an August comment, and the FBI told the Washington Examiner Wednesday, “We are not going to have any comment.”
ISIS-K claimed credit for the attack and named Logari within hours as the terrorist who had carried out the “martydom operation” at the Kabul airport, with ISIS’s Amaq News Agency recounting the terrorist group’s narrative.
Republicans on Capitol Hill have been demanding answers.
“A number of serious questions remain one year after President Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. Chief among them: Who was responsible for killing 13 U.S. service members who lost their lives in the bombing at HKIA?” Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) told the Washington Examiner. “The families of these fallen heroes — and the American people — deserve an answer to this question, and it’s past time for the Biden administration to provide it.”
Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA), part of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, said in September that “U.S. national security officials have now confirmed to me the reports that the August 26th Kabul bomber was a known ISIS-K terrorist that was previously detained at the Bagram prison and was released along with thousands of others just days before the deadly attack.” The U.S. military abandoned Bagram Airfield in July 2021.
“One year later, President Biden has failed to explain why he chose to put politics before the safety of American troops, citizens, and our allies,” Calvert told the Washington Examiner. “We’ve received no explanation for the strategic decision to abandon Bagram Air Base or the failure to secure the thousands of terrorists and Taliban fighters secured there. The Biden administration refuses to officially name the bomber despite unofficial confirmation by sources of his name, affiliation with ISIS-K, and that he was among those who escaped from Bagram.”
Calvert said U.S. service members were put in an “untenable situation” without proper equipment, such as thermal binoculars, to identify the threat.
“Is the Biden administration refusing to confirm the bomber’s identity because it would draw direct connection between Biden’s policy decisions and the deaths of 13 American service members?” Calvert asked.
The New York Times reported in January that “American officials” say Logari was a former engineering student who had been recruited by ISIS years prior. The outlet said U.S. intelligence had heard of Logari in the past and that the CIA warned Indian intelligence in 2017 that he was planning an attack in New Delhi, with India’s foreign intelligence service, the Research and Analysis Wing, capturing Logari and handing him over to the U.S. agency in September 2017. The outlet reported that “American officials” said Logari spent time behind bars at both Pul-e-Charkhi prison and Parwan prison but that the U.S. did not yet know how he ended up becoming ISIS-K’s airport bomber.
The outlet said Logari was among the 1,800 ISIS-K members freed by the Taliban, who released more than 12,000 total prisoners, including 6,000 Taliban members and dozens of members of al Qaeda.
The India-based First Post reported in September that “senior Indian intelligence sources familiar with the case” provided them with similar details about Logari’s past. CNN reported in October that “two U.S. officials” confirmed that the ISIS-K bomber had been sprung from Parwan prison and confirmed it was Logari.
Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) told the Washington Examiner his understanding from briefings he had received was that the Kabul bomber had been handed over to the U.S. thanks to Indian intelligence.
“I think the bigger question is the lack of plan for Bagram writ-large and the lack of plan for the Parwan prison,” Waltz emphasized. “Because we weren’t putting any more detainees into Guantanamo, the Parwan prison at Bagram was essentially Guantanamo 2.0 or the Guantanamo back-up, but it really had the worst of the worst in it. And to hand that over to the Afghan military with no kind of ongoing surveillance plan or advisory effort I thought was hugely irresponsible.”
Waltz continued: “And then, of course, when the Afghan military collapsed, and the prison went right over to the Taliban, and all of the worst of the worst were released — and then, 13 dead Americans as a direct result of it.”
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Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) told the Washington Examiner: “The Biden Administration, either by incompetence or total ignorance, turned a blind eye to critical warning signs, resulting in a deadly and disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan at the wrong time. It was a massive foreign policy failure that will forever be remembered as a stain on American history. One year later, our nation continues to mourn the 13 brave American soldiers who lost their lives.”
Army Brig. Gen. Lance Curtis was named the Pentagon’s lead investigator looking into the airport bombing back in September, with the Defense Department releasing its conclusions in early February. The military official was asked if it was true that the identity of the bomber was known in advance, and he dodged: “There is a separate investigation that is being conducted by the FBI that is taking a look at that. That’s outside the scope of our investigation.”
The State Department’s Rewards for Justice program in February offered a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the location of ISIS-K leader Sanaullah Ghafari and another $10 million for information leading to the arrest of “terrorists responsible for the attack” at the Kabul airport. The State Department has not answered questions about whether the lack of public identification for the bomber would hinder the quest to find others responsible for facilitating the attack.
When the State Department announced the reward in early February, it stated that “a suicide bomber and gunmen attacked the airport.” The website now states that “a suicide bomber attacked the airport” and makes no mention of gunmen.
Marine Corps Gen. Frank McKenzie, the former commander of U.S. Central Command, said the Pentagon investigation found no definitive proof that anyone was ever hit by gunfire, despite immediate witness reports of gunmen in August 2021.
Curtis claimed, “We don’t have any evidence through the course of our investigation that leads us to believe that the Taliban knew about this attack.” And Marine Col. C.J. Douglas contended that “very quickly, Marines determined the Taliban were neither involved nor threatening U.S. personnel.”
Army Lt. Col. Burt Smith said in February that “the furthest killed in action was nearly seventeen meters from the blast.”
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The U.N. secretary-general’s strategic level report in January said that ISIS-K’s strength “has increased from earlier estimates of 2,200 fighters to now approaching 4,000 following the release by the Taliban of several thousand individuals from prison.”
A U.N. Security Council report in July said ISIS “views Afghanistan as a base for expansion in the wider region for the realization of its ‘great caliphate’ project.”
The 13 U.S. service members who were killed by the ISIS-K suicide bomber at Hamid Karzai International Airport on Aug. 26, 2021:
Marine Lance Cpl. David Espinoza, 20
Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee, 23
Marine Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover, 31
Marine Cpl. Hunter Lopez, 22
Marine Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum, 20
Marine Lance Cpl. Dylan Merola, 20
Marine Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, 20
Marine Cpl. Daegan Page, 23
Marine Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo, 25
Marine Cpl. Humberto “Bert” Sanchez, 22
Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, 20
Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Christian Knauss, 23
Navy Hospitalman Maxton Soviak, 22
