The Afghan national who shot at two National Guard soldiers in Washington had worked with US armed forces in Afghanistan before the US government relocated him to the United States, American media reported today.
Background with US intelligence in Kandahar
According to Fox News, the 29-year-old suspect had collaborated with the US army and CIA in Afghanistan. He arrived in the US one month after the rushed withdrawal of American forces during Democratic President Joe Biden’s term, in August 2021.
Fox News quoted CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who said the suspect had worked with the United States in Kandahar, southern Afghanistan, home to one of the most important US military bases.
“After Joe Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Biden administration justified bringing the shooting suspect to the United States in September 2021 due to his prior collaboration with the US government, including the CIA, as a member of a partner force in Kandahar,” Ratcliffe told Fox News.
Targeted attack amid heightened security
The shooting occurred yesterday afternoon in central Washington, where hundreds of these reservists have patrolled on foot since August following a request from US President Donald Trump, against the views of local Democratic authorities.
The two soldiers struck are “seriously injured,” and the suspect is also “seriously injured,” Trump wrote on his network, Truth Social, calling the perpetrator an “animal” who “will pay very dearly” for his act.
The suspect, wounded in an exchange of fire before his arrest, was identified by the Department of Homeland Security as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national.
Immigration halt and Operation Allies Welcome
US citizenship and immigration services announced later that they had indefinitely halted processing of all applications from Afghan nationals to immigrate to the US “to further review security protocols and denial of applications.”
According to the Department of Homeland Security, Lakanwal entered the US in 2021 under Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden administration program to resettle thousands of Afghans who had aided the US during the war in Afghanistan and feared reprisals from Taliban forces that took control after the US withdrawal.
NBC News, citing an interview with an unnamed relative of the suspect, reported earlier today that Lakanwal served for 10 years in the Afghan army alongside US Special Forces troops and spent part of that time stationed in Kandahar.
The relative also said that, in their last conversation several months ago, Lakanwal worked for the giant online retail company Amazon.com, according to NBC News.
The Department of Homeland Security did not include other details from Lakanwal’s immigration record, but a Trump administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, stated that Lakanwal applied for asylum in December 2024, which was approved on 23 April this year, three months after Trump took office. The 29-year-old Lakanwal, who lived in the state of Washington, had no criminal record, the official said.
Details of the midday ambush
The gunfire occurred at midday outside a metro station in a busy commercial area a few blocks from the White House. Secret Service agents preemptively cordoned off the presidential mansion for security reasons immediately after the shots.
In response to the incident, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stated that the president requested the deployment of another 500 National Guardsmen to reinforce the more than 2,000 already in the US capital.
Political fallout and reinforcements
Vice President JD Vance, who was in Kentucky yesterday, supported via X that the shooting proves the Trump administration’s immigration policy is justified.
“We must redouble our efforts to deport people who have no right to be in our country,” he said.
Many of our voters will demand not just words, but action, and this is an entirely appropriate response. We will first bring the shooter to justice, and then we must redouble our efforts to deport people with no right to be in our country.
— JD Vance (@JDVance) November 27, 2025
Already some voices in corporate media…
Critics of the Trump administration’s immigration policy argue it employs illegally harsh tactics and indiscriminately sweeps up immigrants, including some without criminal records and others legally in the country.
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser, who has openly clashed with Trump over the deployment of National Guard troops in her city, told journalists after the incident that “it was targeted gunfire.”
At the same briefing, Jeff Carroll, deputy chief of the Washington Metropolitan Police, stated that the two National Guard soldiers fell into an “ambush” and that the perpetrator appears to have acted alone.
The two soldiers, members of the West Virginia National Guard, were patrolling outside the entrance to a metro station when the suspect “came around the corner,” pulled out a gun, and immediately shot the two, Carroll said.
After an exchange of fire, other National Guard soldiers subdued the suspect, he added.
Also read: Trump on National Guard attack: The “beast” will pay
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