THE United States is offering two $10 million (£7.4 million) rewards for information on the perpetrators of a terror attack on Kabul International Airport.
A suicide bomb assault during the city’s evacuation in August 2021 killed at least 185 people, including 13 American forces and three Britons.
President Joe Biden committed to track down the perpetrators, stressing that the US will “not forgive” them.
According to the State Department, the terrorist leader Sanaullah Ghafari, is to blame.
The department launched a new rewards for justice program, with the first step being to pay for information on terrorists operating in Afghanistan, specifically Ghafari, the chief of the Islamic State offshoot IS-K.
In August of last year, US soldiers withdrew from Afghanistan, a widely criticized decision that resulted in Taliban terrorists regaining power and the collapse of Afghan security forces that US troops and allies had trained and financed for years.
The US military first entered Afghanistan in 2001 to overthrow the Taliban in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks on American territory, which were blamed on al-Qaeda, a militant Islamist organisation based in Afghanistan at the time.
However an explosive device was detonated at Hamid Karzai International Airport during the abrupt withdrawal. Ghafari, also known as Shahab al Muhajir, was chosen commander of IS-K in June 2020 and according to security authorities, is suspected to have been behind the attack.
Gentry Smith, assistant secretary of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, while announcing the awards said he hoped the rewards would aid in the “degrading and destroying” of IS networks and the “thwarting of their global ambitions”.
“We will come after you and locate you,” he added, referring to what the President said about the terrorists last week.
Biden announced on February 3, 2022 that a US assault in northern Syria resulted in the killing of IS leader Abu Ibrahim al Qurayshi while trying to capture him a $10 million reward was previously offered for information on Qurayshi, although it is unclear whether it was claimed.
IS-K is a regional affiliate of the main IS organization, with “Khorasan” alluding to a historical territory that includes parts of modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan.
