Haji Najibullah, a Taliban leader who was arrested in Ukraine and deported to the United States almost a year ago, was hit with a 13-count superseding indictment in the Southern District of New York on Thursday, charging him with various crimes spanning 2007 to 2009, including leading a Taliban insurgent attack which killed Sgt. 1st Class Matthew Hilton, Sgt. 1st Class Joseph McKay, Sgt. Mark Palmateer, and their Afghan interpreter in June 2008. The Taliban attack in Wardak Province included the use of IEDs, RPGs, and automatic weapons.
The Taliban waged a two-decade insurgency in Afghanistan after the U.S. overthrew their regime, before returning to power in August after a turbulent and disastrous U.S. troop departure performed by President Joe Biden.
Najibullah, whom the Justice Department announced “commanded more than a thousand fighters” and reported to senior leadership in the Taliban, was further charged for his part in the October 2008 shootdown of a U.S. helicopter in Wardak Province although, despite Taliban allegations at the time, that did not result in any U.S. deaths. Another attack by Najibullah’s foot soldiers destroyed an Afghan Border Patrol outpost in September 2008.
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The Taliban commander was charged last year for supposedly kidnapping New York Times journalist David Rohde, Afghan journalist Tahir Ludin, and their driver Asadullah Mangal outside Kabul in November 2008 when they sought an interview of a Taliban leader. Najibullah made them hike across the Afghan border into Pakistan. Throughout their seven months in captivity, Najibullah forced Rohde to call his wife in New York to request help, and in one video Rohde “was forced to beg for his life while a guard pointed a machine gun” at his face. Rohde and Ludin escaped the Taliban compound in the Pakistani tribal areas the next year, and Manga soon also escaped.
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The Justice Department announced that Najibullah is charged with providing material support for acts of terrorism ending in death, murdering U.S. nationals, destroying a U.S. military aircraft, planning to use weapons of mass destruction, hostage-taking, kidnapping, and other crimes, and faces life in jail.
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U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said Thursday that Najibullah “led a vicious band of Taliban insurgents who terrorized part of Afghanistan and attacked U.S. troops” and announced, “neither time nor distance can weaken our resolve to hold terrorists accountable for their crimes and to see justice done for their victims.”