Virginia jury convicts Afghan man linked to 2021 Kabul airport attack

April 29 (Reuters) - A federal jury in Virginia on Wednesday convicted an Afghan man of conspiring to provide material support to a terrorist organization in connection with the 2021 suicide bombing at Kabul airport that killed 13 U.S. service members and about 160 Afghan civilians.

But the jury deadlocked on whether his actions directly caused the deaths, sparing the defendant, Mohammad Sharifullah, from a possible life sentence. He still faces up to 20 years in prison. U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga did not immediately set a sentencing date.

The attack occurred on August 26, 2021, as U.S. forces were evacuating from Afghanistan at the end of America’s longest war. A suicide bomber detonated an explosive vest at Abbey Gate, killing 11 Marines, one Navy corpsman and one Army soldier, along with an estimated 160 Afghan civilians.

Prosecutors said Sharifullah helped the Islamic State group’s Afghanistan affiliate, ISIS‑K,by conducting reconnaissance and facilitating communications ahead of the attack. Defense attorneys argued the government relied too heavily on Sharifullah’s own statements during FBI interrogations and failed to independently prove his role in the bombing.

The case marked the first U.S. criminal trial stemming from the Abbey Gate attack, a politically charged episode that has continued to shape debate over how former President Joe Biden's administrationwithdrew from Afghanistan.

Early in President Donald Trump's second term, Sharifullah was arrested in Pakistan, near the Afghan border, by Pakistani security forces working with the FBI and CIA.

(Reporting by Daniel Trotta in Carlsbad, California; Editing by Stephen Coates)