The person suspected of shooting two National Guard soldiers near the White House is an Afghan national who previously served alongside US forces in Afghanistan, AFP reported, citing US media.
What are the Afghan suspect’s alleged ties to the US military?
NBC News, citing a relative and multiple law enforcement sources, identified him as 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal. According to NBC, Lakanwal moved to the United States in September 2021 after spending ten years in the Afghan army assisting US special forces.
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Citing Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Ratcliffe, Fox News reported that Lakanwal worked with various US government entities, including the Intelligence Service.
Wednesday’s shooting left two US National Guard soldiers critically injured.
What did Trump say?
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday (local time) that the suspect was an Afghan man who fled the Taliban and was taken into custody after a broad daylight shooting two blocks from the White House.
According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Lakanwal entered the U.S. in 2021 as part of Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden-era program to resettle thousands of Afghans who aided the U.S. during the war in Afghanistan and feared retaliation from Taliban forces that seized control of their homeland after the U.S. withdrawal.
DHS did not provide further details about his immigration record, but a Trump administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity said Lakanwal applied for asylum in December 2024 and was approved on April 23 of this year, three months after Trump took office, the AP reported.
Lakanwal, 29, who lived in Washington state, had no known criminal history, the official said.
Trump, who was at his Florida resort at the time of the attack, released a pre-recorded video statement late Wednesday calling the shooting “an act of evil, an act of hate and an act of terror.” He said his administration would “review” all Afghans who came to the U.S. during Joe Biden’s presidency.
The Taliban respond
Reacting to the recent attack in Washington, the Taliban claimed that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) may be trying to “tarnish the reputation” of the Afghan government by linking it to the recent shooting, CNN-News18 reported.
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Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told CNN-News18 that the Taliban has a long-standing position that “our policy is clear, we do not allow anyone to use Afghan soil” to carry out attacks abroad.
The US has suspended visa applications for Afghan nationals
Following the incident, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced late Wednesday (local time) that it had indefinitely suspended processing applications for Afghan nationals.
For Afghans hiding in Pakistan, tens of thousands of whom are awaiting a U.S. decision on resettlement, the announcement appeared to close their last safe route, according to an AP report.
Shawn VanDiver, president of AfghanEvac, a volunteer group seeking to help Afghans who have assisted U.S. forces, said about 200,000 Afghans have arrived in the United States through the refugee and special visa programs after screening since 2021.
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During America’s longest war, which ended with the Taliban’s takeover in 2021, American forces and aid organizations employed thousands of Afghans as interpreters and local staff.
After the fall of Kabul, the Biden administration launched Operation Allies Welcome to provide sanctuary to Afghans who face an increased risk of persecution because of their ties to the United States.
500 more Guardsmen to Washington
In response to the shooting, Trump ordered the deployment of an additional 500 Guard troops to Washington, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters. The additional troops will join about 2,200 already in the city as part of the president’s controversial crackdown on immigration and crime targeting Democratic-led cities.
Meanwhile, Andrew Wolfe is one of two members of the West Virginia National Guard injured in the violent attack, his former high school confirmed. “Our Applemen community is deeply saddened to learn that Musselman High School graduate Andrew Wolfe was one of the National Guard members injured in today’s shooting in Washington, DC,” Musselman High School in West Virginia posted on Facebook, as reported by the New York Post.
As of early November, the D.C. National Guard had the largest number on the ground with 949. West Virginia was next with 416 guardsmen.
Wednesday’s shooting came five days after a federal judge ruled to temporarily block National Guard troops from carrying out law enforcement duties in the county without the mayor’s approval, but the judge stayed his order until December to allow the Trump administration to appeal, Reuters reported.
Trump, a Republican, has deployed troops in several other Democratic-led cities — Los Angeles, Chicago, Portland, Ore., and Memphis, Tenn. — to fight what he has described as lawlessness and violent unrest over his crackdown on illegal immigration.
Democratic leaders in those cities have accused Trump of creating pretexts for militarized shows of force to punish political enemies.
(With input from agencies)
