The Islamic State leader behind the 2021 Kabul airport suicide bombing that killed about 180 people including 13 US service members has been killed by the Taliban, according to US officials.
The IS leader, whose identity has not yet been released, was killed in southern Afghanistan in early April as the Taliban conducted a series of operations against the Islamic State group, according to one of the officials. The Taliban at the time were not aware of the identity of the person they killed, the official added.
The US military has informed families of the 11 marines, one sailor and one soldier killed in the blast during the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Darin Hoover, the father of SSgt Darin Taylor Hoover, said the US Marines provided only limited information to him and did not identify the Islamic State leader or give the circumstances of his death.
Hoover is among a group of families that have kept in touch since the bombing, supporting one another and sharing information through a private group messaging chat.
Cheryl Rex, the mother of marine L/Cpl Dylan Merola, who died in the blast, said it was through the chat group that they were informed late on Monday about the killing as they awaited official confirmation from US military officials.
Hoover said he and his son’s mother, Kelly Henson, have spent the past year and a half grieving the death of the 31-year-old US Marine Corps staff sergeant and praying for accountability from the Biden administration for the handling of the withdrawal.
The killing of the unidentified Islamic State group leader, Hoover said, does nothing to help them.
“Whatever happens, it’s not going to bring Taylor back and I understand that,” he said in a phone call. “About the only thing his mom and I can do now is be an advocate for him. All we want is the truth. And we’re not getting it. That’s the frustrating part.”
His son and the other fallen service members were among those screening the thousands of Afghans frantically trying on 26 August 2021 to get on to one of the crowded flights out of the country after the Taliban takeover.
The blast at Abbey Gate came hours after western officials warned of a major attack, urging people to leave the airport. But that advice went largely unheeded by Afghans desperate to escape the country in the last few days of an American-led evacuation before the US officially ended its 20-year presence.
The Afghanistan-based offshoot of the Islamic State, with up to 4,000 members, is the Taliban’s most bitter enemy and top threat militarily.
After the Trump administration reached a 2020 deal with the Taliban to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan and the Biden administration followed through on that agreement in 2021, there had been hope in Washington that the Taliban’s desire for international recognition and assistance for the country’s impoverished population might moderate their behavior.
But relations between the US and the Taliban have deteriorated significantly since they imposed draconian new measures banning girls from school and excluding women from working for international aid and health agencies.
The August 2021 pullout of US troops led to the swift collapse of the Afghan government and military, which the US had supported for nearly two decades, and the return to power of the Taliban. A review of the chaotic withdrawal released earlier this month largely laid blame on Trump, saying President Joe Biden was “severely constrained” by the decisions of his predecessor.
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