WASHINGTON — The Kabul airport suicide bombing that killed US troops and Afghans in August 2021 was unpreventable, and the “bald man in black” US service members saw the morning of the attack was not the bomber, a new report shows US review Central Command.
The findings. released Monday, refute claims by some military officials who thought they had a chance to take out the would-be bomber but were denied approval. And for the first time, the US military confirmed that the bomber was Abdul Rahman al-Logari, an Islamic State militant who had been held in an Afghan prison but was released by the Taliban when the group took control of the country that summer.
The bombing of the Abbey Gate during the last chaotic days of the withdrawal from Afghanistan killed 13 American soldiers and 170 Afghans, and injured many more. It sparked widespread debate and criticism from Congress, fueled by emotional testimony from a Marine injured in the blast, who said snipers thought they had spotted the would-be bomber but could not get approval to take it out.
Former Marine Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews told the House Foreign Affairs Committee last March that Marines and others helping with the evacuation were given descriptions of men believed to be plotting an attack. Vargas-Andrews, who was injured in the blast but was not interviewed during the initial investigation, said he and others saw a man matching the description who might have been able to stop the attack, but requests to take action were denied.
In a detailed briefing to a small number of reporters, members of the team that conducted the assessment released photos of the bald man identified by military snipers as a potential threat and compared them to photos of al-Logari. The team members, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity to provide details that had not yet been made public, described facial recognition and other analytics they used that they said confirmed it was not the same man.
“Over the past two years, some military personnel have claimed that they had the bomber in their sights and that they could have prevented the attack. We now know that that is not correct,” said a team member.
They said they also showed the photo of the bald man to soldiers during the final interviews, and the troops reconfirmed that this was the suspected man they had targeted.
The review notes that the bald man was first seen around 7 a.m. and that troops lost sight of him at 10 a.m. The bombing took place more than seven hours later, and the US says al-Logari did not reach Abbey Gate until “very shortly.” ‘ before the explosion took place. They declined to be more specific about the timing, saying the details are classified.
Relatives of the blast victims have received similar briefings over the past two weekends and some remain unconvinced.
“For me personally, we are still not clear. I believe Tyler saw what Tyler saw and he knows what he saw. And it wasn’t the man they said was the man in black,” said Jim McCollum, the father of Marine Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum, told The Associated Press.
He said the team was “quite detailed, not trying to discredit Tyler, but basically saying he was wrong. But in the end it became as clear as mud for us.”
And Mark Schmitz, the father of Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz himself questioned the photo.
“They kept saying Tyler Vargas-Andrews was looking at this and we thought to ourselves, ‘well, that’s interesting. Why is this a photo of a photo from a Canon camera?” he said. “To me it felt like they were trying to find the guy on those cameras who maybe almost looked like someone of interest that they could try to sell to us.”
However, the families also said they were relieved when they received more details about their loved ones’ deaths, saying initial briefings were not that good.
Schmitz said Army Gen. Eric Kurilla, head of U.S. Central Command, was part of the final briefing and apologized for the way the families were treated during the initial investigation. This time, for the first time, officials were able to share with Schmitz exactly where his son was when the bomb went off and that he was unconscious almost immediately and therefore did not feel the impact of the shrapnel that passed through his left torso and hit him. a primary artery.
“For me, first and foremost, that was the best news I could have gotten,” Schmitz said. “That gave me some assurance that my son was not suffering, and that made me feel very good.”
Team members said they also plan to speak to the troops interviewed this time to share the results of the report.
They said the investigation also could not completely rule out claims that militants had tested the bombings several days earlier. But after reviewing photographs and other intelligence, the team concluded it was unlikely that three men carrying a large bag – which the troops deemed suspicious – were making a test drive.
More broadly, the team said the review revealed some new details, including more discussion about the possible bombing test run. But they said overall it confirmed the findings of the U.S. Central Command’s initial investigation into the bombing: that it was unpreventable and that reports of threats before the bombing were too vague.
For example, the new review noted that threat reports mentioned a possible bomber with well-groomed hair, loose clothing and a black bag. That description, the review said, could have matched that of anyone in the huge crowd desperately trying to get into the airport.
The team said they conducted 52 interviews for the assessment, making a total of 190 if previous research is included. Service members were asked approximately 64 questions, and the sessions lasted between one hour and seven hours.
A number of those interviewed were not included in the original study, often because they were seriously injured in the attack. The new review was ordered by Kurilla last September, largely due to criticism of the initial investigation and claims that the deadly attack could have been stopped.
Members of the team said the Islamic State group had posted the bomber’s name on social media, but U.S. intelligence was later able to independently confirm that report.
U.S. Central Command’s initial investigation concluded in November 2021 that given the deteriorating security situation at the airport’s Abbey Gate as Afghans became increasingly desperate to flee, “the attack at the tactical level was unpreventable without the mission to to maximize the number of evacuees.”
Critics have blasted the Biden administration for the catastrophic evacuation, complaining that no one was held accountable. And while the US was able to force more than 130,000 civilians out of the country during the panic after the Taliban took control of the government, there were horrific images of desperate Afghans clinging to military planes as they took off.