WASHINGTON D.C. – Foreign Press Center arranged a virtual briefing, on the record with Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Diplomatic Security Gentry Smith and Christopher Landberg, Acting Principal Deputy Coordinator for Counterterrorism. Both speakers will make opening remarks. Both the speakers were welcomed by the moderator, who gave opening remarks on “new initiatives to fight against ISIS-K”.
Assistant Secretary Smith made announcement that the U.S. Department of State’s Rewards for Justice Program, which is administered by the Diplomatic Security Service – has offered two rewards of up to “$10 million each for information on terrorists operating in Afghanistan”.
The first reward offer is for information leading to the “identification or location of ISIS-K leader Sanaullah Ghafari”. In June of 2020, Ghafari, who is also known as Shahab al-Muhajir, was appointed by Core ISIS leaders to lead the ISIS-K in Afghanistan. In that role, Ghafari is responsible for approving all ISIS-K operations throughout Afghanistan and arranging funding to conduct operations.
The second reward offer is for “information leading to the arrest or conviction in any country of those responsible for the August 26, 2021 terrorist attack at Kabul’s international airport”.
On August 26th, 2021, terrorists launched a suicide bombing against the airport as the United States and other governments conducted a large-scale evacuation of their citizens and vulnerable Afghans from the country. The attack killed at least 185 people, including 13 U.S. service members who were supporting evacuation operations. More than 150 people, including 18 U.S. service members, were wounded. ISIS-K claimed responsibility for that attack.
Assistant Secretary Smith further stated “we have more information about these reward offers on the Rewards for Justice Twitter channel and website. We encourage anyone with information on Sanaullah Ghafari or those responsible for the attack on the Kabul International Airport to text Rewards for Justice via Signal, Telegram, or WhatsApp at 1-202-702-7843”. Individuals may also contact the Rewards for Justice office via our Tor-based tips-reporting channel. That contact information is available on our Twitter channels and website. All information submitted to Rewards for Justice will be kept strictly confidential.
Smith explained to the foreign media online that “since its inception in 1984, the program has paid more than $200 million to more than 100 people across the globe who have provided actionable information that helped prevent terrorism, bring terrorist leaders to justice, and resolve threats to the U.S. national security”. These rewards are being offered at an important moment in the fight against ISIS. He shared the information that, just a few days ago, the overall leader of ISIS Core was killed in a U.S. counterterrorism operation. That operation and these new reward offers are a clear demonstration of the determination to identify, find and defeat ISIS leaders in Syria, Afghanistan, and anywhere else in the world where they may be found.
Smith stated to be “hopeful that these reward offers” will develop information that will assist us and our international partners in degrading and destroying ISIS networks and in thwarting their global ambitions. “As the President said last week about these terrorists, we will come after you and find you”. Thank you.
Moderator then passed the turn to Acting Principal Deputy Coordinator Christopher Landberg, who thanked Assistant Secretary Smith first, and then started his briefing on a pleasant tone to the foreign media present online. Landberg stated that “the United States is committed to countering ISIS-Khorasan and ensuring that Afghanistan never again becomes a platform for international terrorism”. ISIS-K remains a resilient enemy despite taking significant losses from U.S. and NATO forces in previous years. It is largely concentrated in eastern Afghanistan and has demonstrated a capability to conduct lethal attacks throughout the country, including in major population centers. We are committed to addressing this continued threat using every counterterrorism avenue available.
As President Biden has made clear, in Afghanistan the United States will remain [retain] robust counterterrorism capabilities in the region to neutralize any threats, and we won’t hesitate to use those capabilities if we have to do so. In addition to the Rewards for Justice offers announced by Assistant Secretary Smith today, the United States Government has used terrorist designations to target and disrupt the activities of ISIS-K leaders.
On November 22nd, the State Department designated ISIS-K leader Sanaullah Ghafari. As Assistant Secretary Smith noted, he’s also known as Shahab al-Muhajir and the subject of today’s Reward for Justice offer and he was designated as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, or SDGT, and the United States has also designated as SDGTs his fellow ISIS-K leaders Sultan Aziz Azam and Maulawi Rajab. That same day, the Department of Treasury designated Ismatullah Khalozai for providing financial support to ISIS-K.
Landberg stated further, that the United States took action to designate ISIS-K as an SDGT in 2015 and as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 2016. As a result of these designation actions, all property and interest in property of these individuals subject to U.S. jurisdiction are blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in any transactions with them or to their benefit. Providing material support to a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization is also a crime under U.S. law.
History has taught us the value and need for a counterterrorism approach that is rooted in diplomacy, prevention, law enforcement, and multilateral relationships. Rewards for Justice and terrorist designations are key pieces of this strategy as are halting fighter flows across borders, stopping terrorist finance, exposing and countering terrorist propaganda, and working bilaterally and multilaterally through organizations such as the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS.
The terrorist landscape in Afghanistan and beyond requires flexibility and a continued commitment to work together to effectively prevent radicalization to terrorist violence. As Secretary Blinken has noted, all of us have to remain vigilant and monitor threats, especially any re-emergence of externally directed plotting and address them swiftly when they arise. The lessons we have learned over the previous decades will play a key role moving forward. As the Secretary stated, “we must remain vigilant and adapt quickly to successfully meet the threats of tomorrow. Rewards for Justice is one of the key tools that will help us do so”.
In the question-and-answer session, journalist asked “to elaborate more about the ISIS leader and – in Afghanistan and what’s the capability of ISIS in Afghanistan” in terms of how many people they have, what type of equipment they have. Further, will U.S. cooperate with Taliban to fight ISIS in Afghanistan?
Acting Principal Deputy Coordinator Christopher Landberg took the question and stated “the estimated number of ISIS-Khorasan fighters to be in the 3- to 5,000 range”. We said in our opening statements, they have capability to conduct attacks throughout the country, including in population centers. Taliban themselves are enemies of ISIS-K and have been very motivated to go after ISIS-K, as they have been doing and they did certainly in previous years. There have been a number of ISIS-K attacks against the Taliban, and of course the terrible attack at the airport in August, which we’re all very aware of. The current leader was nominated by ISIS Core in 2020. And there’s a lot of – I would refer you to a lot of public information about him, but he oversees all of their attacks, so certainly involved in the August 2021 Kabul airport attack. And we are in communication with the Taliban and we have been since the Doha agreement and certainly negotiations leading up to that, and we’ve been very clear that we expect the Taliban to make sure that Afghanistan is never used again as a base for external operations against the United States or our allies. Landberg elaborated that the Taliban understand exactly what commitment they have undertaken and they have been working to counter ISIS-Khorasan.
In a quick follow-up on the question by another journalist regarding the Taliban “is the U.S. prepared to possibly pay a reward to members of the Taliban that might provide information against ISIS-K members?” Assistant Secretary Smith took the question and said that we encourage anyone with any information about the two situations that were stated – “the location for identifying Ghafari or any information regarding the August 26th attacks” – to contact Rewards for Justice and provide that information. All cases are done on a case-by-case basis, and we encourage anyone with any information to provide us the information regarding those attacks and those situations.
On a reporter’s questions about the means of ISIS-K fundraising and how they are collecting money for their activities, Landberg responded that any terrorist group is going to have various means of fundraising, through extortion and kidnapping to basic criminal activity. In the case of ISIS, they continue to have significant reserves – ISIS Core in Syria and Iraq – and they can distribute those reserves as needed. Landberg explained that “the United States is working mostly unilaterally but work with their partners, and especially through the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS” – we’re working to leverage all of our capabilities to counter their ability to raise funds. So that’s something that the Global Coalition has been very focused on and has stated publicly.
