Kabul Airport Attack Suicide Bomber Identified: Who Is Abdul Rehman Al-Loghri?

An extremist group has claimed responsibility for the devastating bombing attacks at Kabul airport Thursday that killed at least 70 people.

ISIS-K, a terrorist group, has claimed responsibility for a series of bombing attacks that killed at least 60 Afghans and 13 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. In a statement, ISIS released a photograph of one of its suicide bombers, who was identified as Abdul Rehman Al-Loghri.

Al-Loghri was a member of the Islamic State Khorasan, a group formed in late 2014. The terror group operates as an ISIS affiliate in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and is known as ISIS-K or IS-K. The group is composed of militants who left the Taliban.

"ISIS had sent representatives to both Pakistan and Afghanistan. They were essentially able to co-opt some disaffected Pakistani Taliban and a few Afghan Taliban [members] to join their cause," Seth Jones, an Afghanistan specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told NPR.

On Thursday, Al-Loghri was said to be wearing a suicide vest, which he detonated around 5 p.m. local time outside Abbey Gate, two U.S. officials familiar with the incident told Politico.

A second explosion occurred in the nearby Baron Hotel, with initial reports suggesting it was caused by a car bomb. A series of blasts were heard hours after the initial attacks.

Overall, at least 60 Afghans were killed, 11 U.S. Marines and 2 more servicemen. At least 140 people were injured in the attack.

President Joe Biden on Thursday denounced the attack and vowed that he would hunt down those who were responsible for the bombings.

“To those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes America harm, know this: We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay,” he said from the East Room.

“We will respond with force of precision at our time, place, we choose in a moment of our choosing.”

As of 2017, the U.S. military said it estimated it has killed at least 75% of ISIS-affiliated fighters and its top leaders.