White House shooting suspect worked with US military in Afghanistan? Taliban alleges ISI hand

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 US Army links?

NBC News, referencing 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 a decade in the Afghan army assisting US Special Forces.

Fox News, citing Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Ratcliffe, said Lakanwal worked with various US government entities, including the intelligence service.

Wednesday's shooting left two US National Guard soldiers critically wounded.

What did Trump say?

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday (local time) that an Afghan man who fled the Taliban was the suspect and had been taken into custody after the daylight shooting two blocks from the White House.

According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Lakanwal entered the US in 2021 under Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden-era programme to resettle thousands of Afghans who assisted the US during the Afghanistan war and feared reprisals from Taliban forces who seized control of their homeland after the US withdrawal.

The DHS did not include other details of 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 23 April of this year, three months after Trump took office, AP reported.

Lakanwal, 29, who resided in Washington state, had no known criminal history, the official said.

Trump, who was at his resort in Florida at the time of the attack, released a prerecorded video statement late on Wednesday calling the shooting “an act of evil, an act of hatred and an act of terror”. He said his administration would "re-examine" all Afghans who came to the US during Joe Biden's presidency.

Taliban reacts

Reacting to the recent attack in Washington, the Taliban has alleged that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) might be trying to “tarnish the reputation” of the Afghan government by linking it to the recent shooting, according to a report by CNN-News18.

Taliban spokesperson 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.

US suspends visa processing applications for Afghan nationals

Following the incident, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced late Wednesday (local time) that it has indefinitely suspended processing applications for Afghan nationals.

For Afghans sheltering in Pakistan, tens of thousands of whom are awaiting US resettlement decisions, the announcement felt like their last safe route had closed, according to a report by AP.

Shawn VanDiver, president of AfghanEvac, a volunteer group seeking to assist Afghans who helped US forces, said about 200,000 Afghans had arrived in the United States since 2021 through refugee and special visa programmes after vetting.

During America's longest war, which concluded with the Taliban’s takeover in 2021, US forces and aid organisations employed thousands of Afghans as interpreters and local staff.

Following the fall of Kabul, the Biden administration launched Operation Allies Welcome to provide refuge for Afghans facing an increased risk of persecution due to their ties with the United States.

500 more guard soldiers to be deployed in Washington

In response to the shooting, Trump ordered 500 more guard soldiers deployed 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 contentious immigration and crime crackdown targeting Democratic-led cities.

Meanwhile, one of the two West Virginia National Guard members wounded in the violent ambush is Andrew Wolfe, as confirmed by his former high school. “Our Applemen community is deeply saddened to learn that Musselman High School alumnus, Andrew Wolfe, was one of the National Guardsmen injured in the shooting in Washington, D.C. today,” Musselman High School in West Virginia posted on Facebook, as reported by the New York Post.

As of early November, the DC National Guard had the largest number of personnel on the ground, with 949. West Virginia was next with 416 guardsmen.

Wednesday's shooting came five days after a federal judge issued a ruling to temporarily block National Guard troops from performing law enforcement duties in the district without the mayor's approval, but the judge paused the effect of her order until December to allow an appeal from the Trump administration, Reuters reported.

Trump, a Republican, has deployed troops in several other Democratic-led cities - Los Angeles, Chicago, Portland, Oregon, and Memphis, Tennessee - to combat what he has described as lawlessness and violent unrest over his crackdown on illegal immigration.

Democratic leaders of those cities have accused Trump of manufacturing pretexts for militarised shows of force to punish political foes.

(With inputs from agencies)