The U.S. State Department has placed an up to $10 million bounty on the head of Sanaullah Ghafari, leader of the Islamic State’s "Khorasan Province," ISIS-K, in Afghanistan, according to a news release.
The State Department is looking for information leading to Ghafari's arrest or conviction or for "the arrest or conviction in any country of those responsible for the August 26, 2021, terrorist attack at the Kabul airport," the Feb. 7 news release said.
The attack on the Kabul Airport during chaotic evacuations killed 13 U.S. soldiers, which news publication Al Jazeera subsequently called "the worst single-day loss for American in Afghanistan since the August 2011 attack on a Chinook helicopter that killed 30 service members."
Ghafari is "a Specially Designated Global Terrorist," the news release said.
In June 2020, Ghafari, also known as Shahab al-Muhajir, was appointed by ISIS core leadership to lead ISIS-K, a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, according to information on the State Department's "Rewards for Justice" website. The State Department cited "an ISIS communiqué" that announced his appointment and described Ghafari as an experienced military leader and one of ISIS-K’s 'urban lions' in Afghanistan's capital Kabul.
Ghafari has been involved in guerrilla operations and "planning of suicide and complex attacks," the State Department said in its news release.
With his appointment by ISIS' leadership, Ghafari, 28, now is responsible for approving ISIS-K operations in his home country and finding the money to conduct those operations.
The State Department also is looking for ISIS-K senior commander Maulawi Rajab Salahudin and ISIS-K spokesman Sultan Aziz.
The bounty on Ghafari is not the largest being offered through the Rewards for Justice program. The largest reward currently being offer is the $25 million bounty for information on Ayman al-Zawahiri, a former leader of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad terrorist group who has led Al-Qaeda since the 2011 death of Osama bin Laden.
Anyone who would like more information about Rewards for Justice bounties may find it on the State Department's website website. Rewards for Justice also is encouraging "anyone with information on past or planned attacks against U.S. persons or property in Afghanistan" to text Rewards for Justice via Signal, Telegram, or WhatsApp at +1-202-702-7843, with all information to "be kept strictly confidential."
