Taliban Kill ISIS Leaders Behind Kabul Airport Evacuation Bombing | US News

The leader of ISIS-K who planned the suicide bombing at Kabul airport that killed 183 people was killed by the Taliban.

The attack, carried out during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, killed 170 citizens and 13 US service members.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby did not name the leader, calling him the “mastermind of the horrific attack.”

The suicide bomber, Abdul Rehman Al-Loghri, had been released from prison just days earlier.

The US military notified the families of the soldiers killed over the weekend, which was confirmed by three anonymous officials and a senior congressional aide.

Darin Hoover, the father of Staff Sergeant Darin Taylor Hoover, who was killed in the attack, said the Marines gave him limited information Tuesday and did not identify the ISIS-K leader or provide the circumstances of his death.

According to one of the officials, the Taliban did not know the identity of the person they had killed at the time.

He died in southern Afghanistan in early April as the Taliban conducted a series of operations against the group, the official added.

Cheryl Rex, the mother of Marine Lance Corporal Dylan Merola, who died in the blast, said families were told in a group chat that the ISIS-K leader had died.

The killing of the unidentified militia leader, Mr. Hoover said, is not helping them.

“Whatever happens, it’s not going to bring Taylor back and I understand that,” he said.

“The only thing his mother and I can do now is stand up for him. All we want is the truth. And we don’t get it. That’s the frustrating part.”

The leader was a member of ISIS-K, the terrorist organization’s offshoot active in Afghanistan and surrounding regions.

Since the US withdrawal, the Taliban have tried to root out the group, but so far without success.

The military personnel were among those who searched thousands of Afghans desperately trying to board one of the crowded flights out of the country following the Taliban takeover on August 26, 2021.

The scene of despair quickly turned to one of horror when a suicide bomber attacked.

The Abbey Gate blast came hours after Western officials warned of a major attack and urged people to evacuate the airport.

The withdrawal of US troops in August 2021 led to the rapid collapse of the Afghan government and military, which had supported the US for nearly two decades, and the return of the Taliban to power.

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