The ISIS-K suicide bomber who killed 13 US service members and dozens of Afghans at the Kabul airport in late August was reportedly released from prison by the Taliban days earlier.
Two unnamed US officials and Republican Rep Ken Calvert, who was briefed by national security officials, told CNN on Wednesday that the suicide bomber was freed from the Parwan prison at Bagram Air Base 11 days before the attack.
The August 26 bombing in Afghanistan’s capital killed 11 Marines, one American soldier and one American sailor, as more than 170 Afghans.
Two US officials confirmed the bomber’s identity as Abdul Rehman Al-Loghri, whom ISIS-K named while claiming responsibility for the attack.
The US controlled the air base until early July, when troops left Bagram. Afghan authorities ran the base beginning in 2013.
Pawan prison and Pul-e-Charkhi prison near Kabul held several hundred members of ISIS-K, the Afghan affiliate of the Islamic State, when the Taliban took control in mid-August, a counter-terrorism source in the region previously told CNN. The Taliban released hundreds of ISIS-K members and thousands of other prisoners from both facilities.
The release of the prisoners was one of various criticisms President Joe Biden faced around the US’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.
It was not immediately clear when the Biden administration knew the Taliban released Al-Loghri.
During a Capitol Hill hearing last week, Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley said the terrorist threat from Afghanistan is lower now than it was after 9/11. However, he warned about a possible resurgence of terrorist groups.
‘It’s a real possibility in the not too distant future – six,12, 18, 24, 36 months that kind of timeframe – for reconstitution of al Qaeda or ISIS, and it’s our job now, under different conditions, to protect the American citizens against attacks from Afghanistan,’ Milley said.
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