The ISIS-K terrorist who carried out a suicide bomb attack in August outside of Kabul’s airport in Afghanistan had reportedly been released from prison just days before the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul, according to a top U.S. official.
“U.S. national security officials have now confirmed to me the reports that the Aug. 26 Kabul bomber was a known ISIS-K terrorist that was previously detained at the Bagram prison and was released along with thousands of others just days before the deadly attack,” Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.) said in a statement.
“President Biden’s disastrous handling of our withdrawal from Afghanistan led to a series of events that culminated with the tragic loss of life on Aug. 26 outside of the Kabul airport,” he continued. “Thirteen Americans, including one of my constituents, were killed because of the poor judgment and execution of our troop withdrawal.”
Calvert, who is a high-ranking member on the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, told Fox News last week that he obtained information from intelligence sources that say the ISIS-K suicide bomber was one of the 7,000 prisoners housed at Bagram prison, where he was released by the Taliban terrorist group last month.
The Kabul bomber has been identified as Abdul Rehman—a known member of the ISIS-K terrorist group. He was incarcerated in Afghanistan for the past four years after being arrested in New Delhi, India, following a failed suicide-bombing plot, senior Indian intelligence sources familiar with the case confirmed to Firstpost, an English-language news agency based in India that also was first to report on Rehman’s release.
Rehman was reportedly handed over to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency by the Research and Analysis Wing in September 2017 after his arrest in New Delhi.
“America’s disorganized retreat from Afghanistan has led to hundreds of highly-competent and highly-committed terrorists being set free to rejoin the Islamic State, al-Qaeda, and other terrorist groups,” an intelligence officer told the network. “Literally a decade’s work on counter-terrorism has been undone by the United States’ failure to secure key prisoners in Bagram,” the official added.
Calvert blamed the Biden administration for the prisoner’s release, questioning “why these prisoners were not transferred and secured at another location.”
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