A federal jury in Virginia on Wednesday delivered a mixed verdict in the trial of an Afghan man accused of helping plot a terrorist bombing outside the Kabul airport during the August 2021 American withdrawal. The jury found the man guilty of aiding a terrorist group but deadlocked on whether to hold him responsible for the deadly attack itself.
The split outcome was a stumble for the Justice Department in its effort to hold the defendant, Mohammad Sharifullah, responsible for the attack outside Abbey Gate at Hamid Karzai International Airport. The bombing killed 13 American troops and more than 150 Afghans.
The terrorist group known as Islamic State Khorasan, or ISIS-K — a foe of the Taliban and the United States alike — took responsibility for the attack. The jury unanimously agreed that Mr. Sharifullah was a member of ISIS-K, convicting him of conspiracy to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization.
But the jury deadlocked on whether there was proof beyond a reasonable doubt that his support for the group had resulted in death. Essentially, some jurors did not believe the evidence was sufficient to blame the Abbey Gate attack on him.
The material support conspiracy conviction, by itself, carries a potential sentence of up to 20 years in prison. Had the jury found that Mr. Sharifullah’s actions had resulted in death, he would have been eligible for a life sentence.
The Abbey Gate attack became a symbol of the chaotic U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan in the opening months of the Biden administration. A bomber walked into a crowd of civilians thronging an entrance to the airport in the hope of fleeing the country during the Taliban’s takeover, then detonated an explosive hidden under his clothing.
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Pakistani security forces arrested Mr. Sharifullah near the Afghan border in early 2025. U.S. officials have said that the Central Intelligence Agency provided information about his location. President Trump trumpeted the arrest during his first address to a joint session of Congress during his second term.
“Three and a half years ago, ISIS terrorists killed 13 American service members and countless others in the Abbey Gate bombing during the disastrous and incompetent withdrawal from Afghanistan,” Mr. Trump said, adding, “Tonight I am pleased to announce that we have just apprehended the top terrorist responsible for that atrocity.”
The F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, also promoted the apprehension of what he called “one of the terrorists responsible for the murder of the 13 American soldiers at Abbey Gate.” He went to Dulles International Airport to meet the plane as Mr. Sharifullah was brought to American soil, posting pictures of himself wearing an F.B.I. raid jacket at the airport and of Mr. Sharifullah on the tarmac between two F.B.I. agents.
After his transfer to American custody, Mr. Sharifullah told F.B.I. agents that he was not only a member of ISIS-K, but that he had also assisted in several terrorist attacks, including scouting the attacker’s route to the Kabul airport. But his defense lawyers later disavowed that confession, saying it was false and coerced by his fear of Pakistani security forces.
The prosecution’s case that Mr. Sharifullah was specifically involved in the Abbey Gate attack rested heavily on his own confession. Judge Anthony J. Trenga, of the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, instructed the jury that they could not convict based on a confession if it was not corroborated by other evidence.
Early Wednesday afternoon, the head juror sent the judge a note saying that there was unanimous agreement on the charge of conspiring to provide material support to ISIS-K, but that they were at an impasse on whether Mr. Sharifullah’s actions had specifically contributed to the deadly attack.
“We are, and have been for some time, deadlocked,” the note said, adding: “An unanimous verdict will not be reached.”
Seamus Hughes contributed reporting.
Charlie Savage writes about national security and legal policy for The Times.
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