AUGUST 26, 2021
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN
5:48 P.M.
ISIS is about to murder Americans.
United States marines guard the Abbey Gate entrance to Hamid Karzai International Airport, one mile from the city center. Hundreds of frantic Afghan citizens crowd the entrance, desperate to flee the return of repressive Taliban rule in their homeland. The temperature is more than ninety degrees and the air smells of human waste from a nearby sewage canal. Some of the desperate people even stand knee-deep in the fetid wastewater to cool themselves on this scorching summer evening.
The evacuation process has gone on for days and these Afghans have mostly waited with patience, knowing that one hundred thousand of their fellow citizens have already been flown out in the last two weeks. When their time comes to walk through the Abbey Gate, each man, woman, and child will be asked to show identification documents and be searched for weapons. The crowd is peaceful, full of hope that their lives will soon be changed forever.
Which will happen. But not in the way these folks imagine.
The coming disaster will be engineered by a man who does not want to leave Afghanistan.
His name is Abdul Rahman Al Logari, a young member of the radical group Islamic State–Khorasan—ISIS-K, as they call themselves.* Al Logari is a former engineering student who has been known to the Central Intelligence Agency to have had terrorist ties since at least 2017. At that time, he was plotting a suicide bombing in New Delhi, India. Tipped by the CIA, Indian officials arrested Al Logari and turned him over to the United States. He remained in American custody until Kabul fell. Now the man stands just fifteen feet from the nearest marine. The terrorist wears a knee-length kurta tunic, lightweight pajama pants, and weathered leather shoes. Al Logari hates the United States, having only recently escaped American custody at Bagram Air Base. ISIS-K is made up of Iraqis, Pakistanis, and Afghans. They consider themselves an elite unit, targeting foreigners, journalists, and high-profile targets like the Karzai airport. Afghans who favor Western ways are considered “collaborators” by ISIS-K, and even the Taliban are suspect.
Al Logari waits in line like all the other would-be refugees. But concealed beneath his robe is one of the most lethal suicide vests imaginable. At twenty-five pounds, it is unusually large and bulky for an explosive device. Should he detonate the weapon perfectly, everyone within his line of sight—Americans and Afghans alike—will either be killed or horribly mutilated. The terrorist accepted his assignment yesterday from Shahab al-Muhajir, the leader of ISIS-K.
The marines know the terrorist is here. But they don’t know what he looks like. They have been warned by the Taliban that there is a significant chance of a terror attack. Although there are two other entrance gates to Karzai International, the possibility of a bombing has closed them for today. Also, the United States, Great Britain, and Australia have all directed their citizens still remaining in Afghanistan to stay away from the airport. Instead, they are told to meet at a nearby hotel, where they are flown in a military CH-47 helicopter to the runway. That order was given four days ago as thousands of ISIS prisoners were released from detention in nearby Bagram. The directive came from the US State Department, which somehow did not calibrate the possibility that Abdul Raman al Logari and others would immediately turn to mayhem.
Some of the danger could have been avoided when President Joe Biden ordered the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan after twenty years of war. Bagram would have been a far more secure option for evacuations. The base, forty-five miles north of Kabul, is ringed with antiterror devices. It is much harder to penetrate than the Kabul airport.
In just a few hours, President Biden will feel the repercussions of his decision to abandon Bagram in the middle of the night.
Al Logari moves forward in line, unbothered. He can clearly see the faces of the young marines near him. They are friendly, smiling, weary after a long day. Some are even women, a fact which offends al Logari’s religious beliefs because women should remain subservient to men. So to see them here, carrying a weapon and telling men what to do, is a violation of all that is sacred to the terrorist.
The American military presence is everywhere. But it doesn’t prevent al Logari from easily assimilating into the crowd. There is no pre-security screening. And while the Taliban has stepped in from time to time to prevent refugees from behaving in an unruly manner, its focus is elsewhere. Not on ISIS-K.
The terrorist now steps close enough to smell the breath of the nearest marine. It is not his turn to enter the gate, but he does not want to take a chance. He has made his decision.
The suicide vest is made of thick plates of explosives, over which a fragmentation jacket filled with pieces of steel is fitted. In effect, al Logari is a walking land mine. A simple detonator is attached, meaning all he has to do is push the button that will stimulate an electrical charge. The bomb will then detonate.
Al Logari, age and origin unknown, well knows that his body will be instantly torn to pieces, even as his head is wrenched from its torso and flies away intact.
No matter. He presses the button.
Everyone within a thirty-foot radius feels the ground give way as the massive explosion rocks the crowd. Arms and legs are torn from bodies and fly through the air. The percussion blast destroys the hearing of those who still live. Hundreds are dead or wounded, among them eleven United States marines, one army sergeant, and one navy medic. Eighteen other Americans are wounded.
From Washington, DC, President Biden soon addresses the nation about the loss: “We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay …
“We will respond with force and precision at our time, at the place we choose and the moment of our choosing,” says Biden. “Here’s what you need to know: these ISIS terrorists will not win.”
The murders of the thirteen US service people and 169 others at the Kabul airport shocks the world. Immediately, anti-Biden brigades on social media blame the president himself. Those paid to defend him struggle to present a cogent argument. Bagram was secure—but it was abandoned. Why?
There is no logical answer forthcoming.
In the weeks to come, ISIS-K will quickly gather strength, coalescing in eastern Afghanistan. Yes, it is a sworn enemy of the Taliban. But the most desirable target for the new terror threat is the West.
Especially the United States of America.