Kabul [Afghanistan], November 28: Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the Afghan man accused of shooting two National Guard members on Wednesday, worked alongside the CIA in Afghanistan before coming to the US four years ago, officials have said.
The suspect is accused of shooting two West Virginia troop members - Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Andrew Wolfe, 24 - blocks from the White House.
"We are praying they survive, and that the highest charge will not have to be murder in the first degree," US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said on Thursday.
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.
Mr Lakanwal 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.
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.
Mr Lakanwal's 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 U.S. 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", Pirro said, noting that Mr Lakanwal drove his car across the country from where he was living in Bellingham, Washington, to Washington DC to carry out this attack.
Officials are now reviewing his immigration history and how he was vetted before he came to the US, she added.
Source: Fijian Broadcasting Corporation
