National Guard shooting suspect worked with CIA in Afghanistan

The Afghan man accused of shooting two members of the US military in downtown Washington DC once worked alongside the CIA in Afghanistan, officials have said.

Rahmanullah Lakanwal drove thousands of miles from the west coast to launch an "ambush-style" attack on two West Virginia members of the National Guard on Wednesday afternoon, authorities said.

He shot Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Andrew Wolfe, 24, at close range just a few blocks from the White House, officials said, and they both remain in a critical condition in hospital.

Mr Lakanwal came to the US in 2021 under a programme that offered special immigration protections to Afghans in the wake of America's withdrawal from Afghanistan.

He helped guard US forces at Kabul airport as thousands scrambled to escape Afghanistan before the Taliban took power, a former military commander who served alongside him told the BBC's Afghan Service.

The father of five had been recruited to Unit 03 of the Kandahar Strike Force, nine years earlier.

His unit was known locally as Scorpion Forces, operating initially under the CIA but eventually for the Afghan intelligence department known as the National Directorate of Security.

Mr Lakanwal was a GPS tracker specialist, the former commander told the BBC, describing him as a "sporty and jolly character".

His whole unit was moved from Kandahar to Kabul five days before the Taliban entered the capital. They continued to protect the airport for another six days, before they too were airlifted out to the US.

At a press conference on Thursday, FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed Mr Lakanwal's connection to US forces, saying the suspect "had a relationship in Afghanistan with partner forces", before moving to the US.

In the wake of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, the Biden administration - with bipartisan support - created a programme called Operation Allies Welcome that allowed around 77,000 Afghans to enter the US under special immigration protections.

The programme was in place for about a year following the US withdrawal.

Mr Lakanwal, 29, was among those who entered the US through this programme, and was paroled into the US on humanitarian grounds back in 2021 CBS, the BBC's US news partner reported.

That mechanism was the main one the Biden administration used to bring Afghans to the US.

Mr Lakanwal later applied for asylum in 2024. His application was granted earlier this year, CBS reported, after Trump came to power.

His request for a green card, however, which is tied to the asylum grant, is pending, a Homeland Security official told CBS.

"The Biden Administration justified bringing the alleged shooter to the United States in September 2021 due to his prior work with the US Government, including CIA, as a member of a partner force in Kandahar, which ended shortly following the chaotic evacuation," CIA Director John Ratcliffe said in a statement to CBS.

The shooting of National Guard members was "targeted", said the US attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, noting that Mr Lakanwal drove his car across the country from Bellingham in Washington state to carry out this attack.

After the shooting, other National Guard members on the scene shot Mr Lakanwal and detained him.

He faces more than a decade behind bars if found guilty of three counts of assault with intent to kill while armed and one count of possession of a firearm during a crime of violence.

He remains in hospital while being treated for his injuries.

In the wake of the shooting, which Donald Trump labelled an "act of terror", the president said that he would take steps to remove any foreigner "from any country who does not belong here".

On Wednesday, the US suspended all immigration requests from Afghans.

Trump said that the US "must now re-examine every single alien who has entered our country from Afghanistan under Biden".

On Thursday, Joseph Edlow US Citizenship and Immigration Services chief said the president had directed him to conduct "a full scale, rigorous re-examination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern".

In addition to reviewing immigration efforts, Trump said he would send another 500 National Guard members to patrol the streets of Washington.

Already more than 2,000 troops have been guarding the nation's capital since August, when the president began deploying troops to cities to tackle what he called "out of control" crime.

National Guard troops are a reservist force that can be activated to serve as military troops, but have limited power as they cannot enforce the law or make arrests.

Hafizullah Maroof and Sayed Abdullah Nizami of BBC Afghan Service contributed to this report