Taliban kill mastermind of suicide bombing at Kabul airport, U.S. officials tell families

By Farnoush Amiri, Matthew Lee and Aamer Madhani, Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The Taliban have killed the senior Islamic State group leader behind the August 2021 suicide bombing outside the Kabul airport that left 13 U.S. service members and about 170 Afghans dead, the father of a Marine killed in the attack said he was told Tuesday by military officials.

Over the weekend, the U.S. military began to inform families of the 11 Marines, the sailor and the soldier killed in the blast at Abbey Gate during the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. And those family members shared the information in a private group messaging chat, according to the mother of another Marine who said this is not the first time the families were told the person responsible was killed.

Three of the Marines who died grew up in Southern California and Camp Pendleton’s 2nd Battalion/1st Marine Regiment was hit especially hard, with nine of the fallen coming from that unit.

Marines with the 2/1 who were killed in the blast were: Lance Cpl. David L. Espinoza, 20, of Rio Bravo, Texas; Sgt. Nicole L. Gee, 23, of Roseville, north of Sacramento; Staff Sgt. Darin “Taylor” Hoover, 31, of Salt Lake City, Utah, who was living in Aliso Viejo; Cpl. Hunter Lopez, 22, of Indio; Lance Cpl. Rylee J. McCollum, 20, of Jackson, Wyoming; Lance Cpl. Dylan R. Merola, 20, of Rancho Cucamonga; Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui, 20, of Norco; Cpl. Daegan W. Page, 23, of Omaha, Nebraska; Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo, 25, of Lawrence, Massachusetts; Cpl. Humberto A. Sanchez, 22, of Logansport, Indiana; and Lance Cpl. Jared M. Schmitz, 20, of St. Charles, Missouri. Also killed were Navy Corpsman Maxton W. Soviak, 22, of Berlin Heights, Ohio, and Army Staff Sgt. Ryan C. Knauss, 23, of Corryton, Tennessee.

The account from the families to The Associated Press was confirmed by three U.S. officials and a senior congressional aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details that had not yet been made public.

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.

Darin Hoover, the father of Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover, said the Marines provided only limited information to him Tuesday and did not identify the Islamic State leader or give the circumstances of his death.

Hoover is among a group of 12 Gold Star families that have kept in touch since the bombing, supporting one another and sharing information through the messaging chat. The chat was created by Cheryl Rex, the mother of Marine Lance Cpl. Dylan Merola, who died in the blast.

Rex, who has been a vocal critic of the Biden administration’s handling of the withdrawal, questioned what the families were told.

“This is the third time they told us they killed the main person behind the ISIS bombing,” Rex said. “What they’re telling us is that the Taliban informed the U.S. that they killed the ISIS suicide bomb leader. It’s not like our military did it. It’s the Taliban that shot and killed the main leader. They won’t divulge the name or tell us who the leader was who was killed.”

“To send us a report, that they’ve killed this person, I don’t believe it,” she said.

Rex said she and other families first started hearing on the group chat a few days ago that families were being notified. She said she was the last family member to be notified Tuesday.

“First they blame the Trump administration, now they say the person has been held accountable because he’s no longer alive,” Rex said, adding many of the families are “outraged” by what she interprets as an effort to take pressure off the Biden administration, especially in the wake of recent Congressional hearings regarding the circumstances surrounding the bombing and who is to be held accountable. The Taliban was not who decided to station her son and other troops at the walls of the airport, she said.

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 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 member, 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 Aug. 26, 2021, to get onto one of the crowded flights out of the country after the Taliban takeover. The scene of desperation quickly turned into one of horror when a suicide bomber attacked. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility.

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 U.S. 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. The group has continued to carry out attacks in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover, especially against the country’s minority groups.

After the Trump administration reached a 2020 deal with the Taliban to withdraw U.S. 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 U.S. 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.

However, a line of communication still exists between the two sides, led by the U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan, Tom West. West’s contacts are primarily with Taliban officials in Kabul and not with the group’s more ideological wing based in Kandahar.

The August 2021 pullout of U.S. troops led to the swift collapse of the Afghan government and military, which the U.S. had supported for nearly two decades, and the return to power of the Taliban. In the aftermath, President Joe Biden directed that a broad review examine “every aspect of this from top to bottom” and it was released earlier this month.

The Biden administration in the publicly released version of the review largely laid blame on President Donald Trump for the deadly and chaotic 2021 withdrawal, which was punctuated by the suicide bombing at Abbey Gate.

News of the killing came on the same day that Biden formally announced he will seek a second term as president, offering a reminder of one of the most difficult chapters of his presidency. The disastrous drawdown was, at the time, the biggest crisis that the relatively new administration had faced. It left sharp questions about Biden and his team’s competence and experience — the twin pillars central to his campaign for the White House.

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Associated Press writers Lolita C. Baldor, Tara Copp and Ellen Knickmeyer and SCNG staff writer Erika I. Ritchie contributed to this report.

Source: Orange County Register