Suspected Abbey Gate bomber convicted of aiding Islamic State group but jury deadlocked over alleged role in attack

An alleged Islamic State group militant from Afghanistan was convicted on Wednesday of aiding the terror organization that took credit for a deadly suicide bombing at a Kabul airport, but a jury couldn’t agree on whether he bears some responsibility for that attack during the U.S.military’s chaotic withdrawal from the country in 2021.Mohammad Sharifullah faces a maximum prison sentence of 20 years after his one-count conviction in an international terrorism case that President Donald Trump heralded last year during a speech to a joint session of Congress.

Sharifullah didn’t testify at his weeklong trial.Approximately 160 Afghans and 13 U.S.service members were killed in the Aug.

26, 2021, attack at the airport, where U.S.troops were conducting an evacuation operation when a lone suicide bomber detonated an improvised explosive device near an entry point known as Abbey Gate.A federal jury in Virginia convicted Sharifullah of providing material support to an Islamic State regional branch known as ISIS-K.

But the jurors deadlocked on whether any deaths at the airport “resulted from” that conspiracy.Sharifullah could have faced a possible life sentence if the jury had unanimously decided that question.Sharifullah didn’t appear to have any visible reaction to the verdict.

U.S.District Judge Anthony Trenga didn’t immediately set a date for Sharifullah’s sentencing.The jury deliberated for roughly eight hours over two days.

In a note to the judge, jurors indicated that they quickly reached a unanimous decision to convict Sharifullah of conspiracy but couldn’t agree on the element that could have significantly enhanced the severity of his sentence.The judge rejected a prosecutor’s request to give them more time to deliberate.Defense attorney Lauren Rosen argued that prosecutors failed to present any evidence tying Sharifullah to the bombing besides his own words during hours of FBI questioning.

Rosen said Sharifullah told FBI agents what he thought...