U.S. takes custody of Afghanistan airport bombing suspect

The Justice Department on Wednesday confirmed that a man suspected of planning the deadly 2021 Kabul airport bombing was in U.S. custody after Pakistani authorities detained him. The man was a member of the Islamic State group's Afghanistan affiliate, according to the department. He is presumed innocent until proven guilty. 

The suicide bombing killed 13 U.S. service members and about 170 Afghans during the American withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. The man in custody, Mohammad “Jafar” Sharifullah, confessed to helping scout a route for the bomber in an interview with FBI special agents, according to the Justice Department’s statement. Sharifullah is expected to appear at a federal court in Virginia on Wednesday. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of life in prison, according to the department.

United States President Donald Trump first mentioned the arrest during his Tuesday evening address to Congress. Trump thanked the Pakistani government for its help in detaining Sharifullah.

How did Pakistani authorities catch Sharifullah? Several U.S. officials told Axios that the CIA had been monitoring Sharifullah for a while and recently received specific intelligence on his location. The agency passed on the information to the Pakistani Intelligence Service, which sent an elite unit to capture him near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

Dig deeper: Read Christina Grube’s summary of Donald Trump’s address to Congress.