The suspect in the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., has been identified as 29-year-old Afghan citizen Rahmanullah Lakanwal.

Lakanwal arrived in the U.S. in 2021 as part of the evacuation of Afghan allies who worked with U.S. troops during the 20-year war against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

He applied for asylum in 2024, and it was granted in 2025, according to CBS News. He then applied for a green card, and his application was pending.

While in Afghanistan, Lakanwal worked alongside the CIA “as a member of a partner force in Kandahar,” according to the agency’s director, John Ratcliffe. Kandahar was a Taliban stronghold that saw some of the fiercest fighting of the war.

After the war, Lakanwal was one of about 800 Afghan refugees who were resettled i

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