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HKIA bomber was in CIA custody for four years
Abdul Rehman al-Loghri, the man ISIS-K claimed as the suicide bomber who facilitated the August 26 attack at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, was in CIA custody for nearly four years before his release from prison on August 15.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BREAKING?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BREAKING</a>: ISIS claims responsibility for Kabul suicide bombings today which killed 12 US soldiers and more than 60 civilians. Abdul Rehman Al-Loghri of ISKP was allegedly the suicide bomber. ISIS may shortly release a claim video as well. <a href="https://t.co/ULTQDzTEpU">pic.twitter.com/ULTQDzTEpU</a></p>— Aditya Raj Kaul (@AdityaRajKaul) <a href="https://twitter.com/AdityaRajKaul/status/1430976762800852994?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 26, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Custody dissolves on the same day as the government
According to Firstpost, senior Indian intelligence officials confirmed that al-Loghri was handed over to the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency by the Research and Analysis Wing in September 2017. After that point, al-Loghri was imprisoned at the Parwan Detention Facility, just near Bagram Air Base.
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Al-Loghri was held and interrogated for multiple years, which apparently supplied pertinent information allowing for a series of Islamic State (IS) leaders and affiliates to be identified. The jihadist, alongside thousands of others, was abruptly freed on Aug. 15, the same day that the Taliban declared their takeover of the country.
Many detainees with a record of terrorist activity, like al-Loghri, were able to leave the prison in the midst of the chaos that ensued after the Taliban wrested power from the former Afghanistan government.
The bomber before
Before committing the horrendous suicide bombing on Aug. 26, al-Loghri had a history of much of the same.
The son of a wealthy Afghan merchant, al-Loghri traveled in his mid-20s to India. His mission for IS in the country was to help coordinate multiple suicide bombings in New Delhi. Al-Loghri hid his identity during this period by acting as an unassuming engineering student at a local private college.
Al-Loghri was one of 12 who trained in Pakistan to later carry out attacks in India and nearby countries. According to the Indian Express, this information resulted from an 18-month-long surveillance operation in Afghanistan, Dubai and New Delhi.
The attacks planned for New Delhi were ultimately quashed. While those suicide bombings were averted, the inability to keep those involved in custody led to what amounts to a slight pause, rather than outright prevention, of the attacks.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">.<a href="https://twitter.com/JenGriffinFNC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JenGriffinFNC</a>: "How many ISIS-K prisoners were left at Bagram and believed to have been released from the prison there & why weren't they removed before the U.S. pulled out to some place like Gitmo?"<br><br>Kirby: "Well, I don't know the exact number. Clearly, it's in the thousands" <a href="https://t.co/yUdIz0l32H">pic.twitter.com/yUdIz0l32H</a></p>— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) <a href="https://twitter.com/CurtisHouck/status/1431273161484611589?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 27, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
“Thousands” of ISIS-K prisoners released at Bagram
Sawt al-Hind, a pro-IS magazine in India, expounded al-Loghri’s story as one to idolize. In an article published about al-Loghri, the magazine said, “… the brother was tested with imprisonment and was deported to Afghanistan… Staying true to his promise to Allah, the brother didn’t go home, rather he carried out his operation, his heart filled with tranquillity and pleasure, we consider him such and Allah is his judge.”
Al Loghri is only one of many, many others who managed to attain freedom once the Taliban assumed power in Afghanistan. Without a watchful eye on each and every one of these newly-released suspected terrorists, the way will be paved for even more brazen attacks to be carried out.
Only time will tell how impactful the release of all of these prisoners will be. One officer who worked on al-Loghri’s case told Firstpost that “America’s disorganised 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.”
Adding to this, the officer asserted, “Literally a decade’s work on counter-terrorism has been undone by the US’ failure to secure key prisoners in Bagram,” and that, the consequences will be “very far-reaching.”
