WASHINGTON: The FBI said on Thursday that it had launched an international terrorism investigation after a gunman — identified as an Afghan national who served with US troops in Afghanistan — shot and critically injured two National Guard soldiers near the White House in Washington.
The shooting, which officials described as an unprovoked, “ambush-style” attack, cast a grim shadow over the Thanksgiving holiday and triggered a hard-line, anti-immigrant response from President Donald Trump and some of his top law enforcement officials.
In a brief video statement in which he called the shooting an “act of evil,” Trump painted immigrants as an existential threat to national security and his administration ordered an immediate halt to the processing of immigration applications from Afghanistan.
“We must take all necessary measures to ensure the removal of any alien from any country who does not belong here, or add benefit to our country. If they can’t love our country, we don’t want them,” the president said.
The US attorney for Washington DC, Jeanine Pirro, said the suspected assailant — identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29 — had been living in the western state of Washington and had driven across the country to the nation’s capital.
Gunned down in ‘brazen’ attack
In what she called a “brazen and targeted” attack, Pirro said the gunman opened fire with a .357 Smith and Wesson revolver on a group of guardsmen on patrol Wednesday just a few blocks shy of the White House.
“One guardsman is struck, goes down, and then the shooter leans over and strikes the guardsman again. Another guardsman is struck several times,” Pirro said.
Both soldiers remained in critical condition on Thursday, while the suspected shooter was in detention in hospital.
He was charged with three counts of assault with intent to kill — charges that Pirro said would immediately be upgraded to first-degree murder if one of the guardsmen died.
Officials said they still had no clear understanding of the motive behind the shooting.
CIA director John Ratcliffe said the suspect had been part of a CIA-backed “partner force” fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, and had been brought to the United States as part of a programme to evacuate Afghans who had worked with the agency.
FBI director Kash Patel told reporters Thursday that officials were investigating any associates the suspect had either back home or in the United States.
“That is what a broad-based international terrorism investigation looks like,” Patel said, without elaborating on what the precise terrorism motive might be.
The incident brings together three politically explosive issues: Trump’s use of the military at home, immigration, and the legacy of the US war in Afghanistan.
Trump has deployed troops to several cities, all run by Democrats, including Washington, Los Angeles and Memphis. The move has prompted multiple lawsuits and allegations of authoritarian overreach by the White House.
In the wake of Wednesday’s shooting, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth announced 500 more troops would deploy to Washington, bringing the total to 2,500.
This despite a federal judge last week ordering a temporary suspension of the deployment on the grounds that it was likely illegal.
Afghan legacy
The heads of the FBI, CIA and Homeland Security and other senior Trump appointees all insisted that Lakanwal had been granted unvetted access to the United States because of lax asylum policies in the wake of the chaotic final US withdrawal from Afghanistan under former president Joe Biden.
But AfghanEvac, a group that helped resettle Afghans in the US after the military withdrawal, said they undergo “some of the most extensive security vetting” of any migrants.
While Lakanwal had applied for asylum during the Biden administration, his application was approved under the Trump administration, the group said.
“This individual’s isolated and violent act should not be used as an excuse to define or diminish an entire community,” said its president, Shawn VanDiver.
More than 190,000 Afghans have been resettled to the United States since the Taliban takeover, according to the US State Department.
