The Taliban have killed the senior Islamic State group leader behind the August 2021 suicide bombing outside the Kabul airport that left 13 US service members and about 170 Afghans dead, according to the father of a Marine killed in the attack who was briefed Tuesday by military officials. Over the weekend, the US military began to inform families of the 11 Marines, the sailor, and the soldier killed in the blast at Abbey Gate during the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan, the AP reports. And those family members shared the information in a private group messaging chat, according to the mother of another Marine.
The account from the families to was confirmed to the AP by three US 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, told the AP it was through the chat group that they were informed late Monday about the killing as they awaited official confirmation from US military officials. 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.
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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 Afghanistan-based offshoot of the IS, 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. (More Afghanistan stories.)
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