An additional Pentagon review into the events surrounding the deadly bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Afghanistan has determined that service members who spoke out publicly about what they felt was their ability to prevent the attack were mistaken.
The bombing, which occurred in late August 2021, targeted the large crowds of Afghans who were trying to leave the country in the last days of the American military presence and ahead of the Taliban's takeover. The attack killed 13 U.S. service members, including 11 Marines and a soldier and sailor, wounded dozens more, and killed at least 170 Afghans.
“Over the past two years, some service members have claimed that they had the bomber in their sights, and they could have prevented the attack,” one of the officials who briefed reporters on Friday said. “We now know that is not correct.”
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Officials identified the man responsible for the bombing as ISIS-K member Abdul Rahman al-Logari. Aside from his name, military officials also confirmed that al-Logari was among several prisoners that the Taliban released in the days prior to the bombing, though one official stressed that “ISIS-K would still have been able and capable of conducting the attack” without al-Logari “because they had multiple bombers that were available.”
The news comes just over a year after some of the service members who…
