A military investigation has found that U.S. forces did not identify the would-be Abbey Gate suicide bomber before he killed about 170 people on Aug. 26, 2021.
The ISIS-K suicide bomber, identified as Abdul Rahman al Logari, arrived at the gates outside Hamid Karzai International Airport alongside thousands of Afghan allies who were desperate to leave Afghanistan given the U.S. military was days away from leaving the country, with the Taliban having taken control.
Thirteen U.S. troops were killed in the bombing, while dozens of other service members were injured in the blast.
In March 2023, Marine Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews emotionally recounted the bombing, in which he lost an arm and a leg, in front of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He told lawmakers that he believed he identified a suspect who met the intelligence description troops had of the would-be bomber but that his commanding officer did not give him the green light to engage the target.
His comments, among others, came after U.S. Central Command had completed its investigation into the bombing and prompted CENTCOM Commander Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla to direct U.S. Army Central, known as ARCENT, to conduct a supplemental investigation.
ARCENT concluded that despite Vargas-Andrews’s testimony, U.S. troops did not identify the would-be bomber beforehand, nor was there a chance for them to engage him prior to the attack.
Specifically, investigators honed in on the person Vargas-Andrew was referencing, whom the military nicknamed “the bald man in black.” They were able to use a profile photo snapped of this person outside the gate and compared it with a photo of Logari ISIS-K posted on Telegram days later. The facial analysis demonstrated that the man seen at the airport and Logari are different people.
Investigators also determined that the attack was not preventable at the tactical level without degrading the mission to maximize the number of evacuees. They interviewed more than 50 service members directly involved in the evacuation operation, 12 of whom were previously unavailable to speak with them because they were medically evacuated or getting treatment.
At the time, the United States had overwhelming intelligence indicating the possibility of an imminent attack.
“Throughout the entirety of the day on Aug. 26, 2021, we disseminated the suicide bomber information to ground forces at Abbey Gate. … Over the communication network, we passed that there was a potential threat and an attack imminent. This was as serious as it could get,” Vargas-Andrews told the committee. “Eventually, the individual disappeared. To this day, we believe he was a suicide bomber. We made everyone on the ground aware. Operations had briefly halted but then started again. Plain and simple, we were ignored. Our expertise was disregarded. No one was held accountable for our safety.”
He was not interviewed during the initial investigation.
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Gen. Frank McKenzie, Kurilla’s predecessor who was in the position at the time of the withdrawal, told the Washington Examiner following Vargas-Andrews’s testimony that he was “not aware of any reporting from any source any time that would corroborate” his claim.
Killed in the attack were 11 Marines: Lance Cpl. David Espinoza, 20; Sgt. Nicole Gee, 23; Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover, 31; Cpl. Hunter Lopez, 22; Lance Cpl. Dylan R. Merola, 20; Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum, 20; Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, 20; Cpl. Daegan William-Tyeler Page, 23; Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo, 25; Cpl. Humberto Sanchez, 22; and Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, 20. Also killed were Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss, 23, and Navy Hospital Corpsman Maxton Soviak, 22.
