Taliban used discarded UK kit to track down Afghans who worked with west, inquiry hears

November 30, 2025 Current News Articles

Eleni Courea

The UK left behind sensitive technology allowing the Taliban to track down Afghans who worked with western forces, a whistleblower has told the Afghan leak inquiry.

The woman, known as Person A, said Afghans affected by the data leak were told to move homes and change their phone numbers to protect themselves from the Taliban because it had the resources to track them down.

MPs are looking into the Conservative government’s handling of a catastrophic leak of the personal details of almost 19,000 Afghans who had asked to come to the UK to flee the Taliban.

A spreadsheet containing their personal data, including names, contact details and in some cases family information, was accidentally leaked by an official working at UK special forces headquarters in February 2022.

The leak came to light only in August 2023, when the names of nine people who had applied to move to the UK appeared on Facebook. Person A, an independent volunteer caseworker who was working with targeted Afghans, was alerted to this and notified the Ministry of Defence.

“There seems to be this misconception that the Taliban do not have the same sort of facilities that we have,” she told MPs on the defence select committee at a private hearing on 18 November, the transcript from which was published on Friday.

“We left it all behind in Afghanistan; they have it. If they have your phone number, they can trace you down to within metres. That is what the [redacted] unit did.”

Asked by Jesse Norman, the Tory MP for Hereford and South Herefordshire, if the Taliban possessed the necessary encryption and de-encryption technologies, Person A said: “They’ve got everything.”

Asked by Norman whether “we left them sensitive material and kit which they were then using against us?” she responded: “Yes.”

Preliminary research submitted to the inquiry last month estimated that at least 49 family members and colleagues of Afghans affected by the leak had been killed.

A superinjunction about the leak was put in force in August 2023 and prevented any information about it from being made public until July 2025.

Person A told MPs that she was served the injunction on 18 September 2023 during a Teams call with the government, without being offered any legal advice.

She had alerted James Heappey, then the armed forces minister, and Luke Pollard, his Labour counterpart, about the leak by email on 13 August 2023. She received no reply from Heappey until 28 August 2023, when she tagged him in a post on X.

Because she was restricted by the injunction, Person A and the non-governmental organisation she was working with told Afghan families they were dealing with that they had “concerns that somebody’s phone had been compromised”.

“We recommended that they moved if they could and changed their phone numbers. Those were the two main details that, if the Taliban had access to this information, would lead to them being traced,” she said.

Person A argued that Paul Rimmer, a retired civil servant who carried out a review of the breach, had been wrong to conclude that the acquisition of the dataset by the Taliban was “unlikely to substantially change an individual’s existing exposure given the volume of data already available”, and that it was unlikely “merely being on the dataset would be grounds for targeting”.

“The thing to remember is that these Afghans are not standing up to the Taliban; they are in hiding. Everything boils down to their previous employment. They do not just target the principal applicant; they target the families,” she said.

“We have people who have been electrocuted. We have people who have been waterboarded. We have people who have been whipped with the big outdoor electrical cables that are around the thickness of your fist … we have had four-year-old children who have had their arms broken to try to get the family to say where someone is.”

An MoD spokesperson said: “The independent Rimmer review, conducted based on existing assessments, expertise and reflections from current Afghanistan work, focused on those most able to provide a high level of insight into the current situation as of spring 2025, concluded that it is highly unlikely that merely being on the spreadsheet would be grounds for an individual to be targeted.”

US pauses visas for all Afghan passport holders, halts asylum requests

November 30, 2025 Current News Articles

By Alastair McCready

and News Agencies

Al Jazeera

The US State Department has announced it is “immediately” pausing issuing visas for individuals travelling on Afghan passports to protect “public safety”, as President Donald Trump administration’s immigration crackdown intensifies in the wake of a deadly attack on two National Guard members.

The announcement on Friday came as United States immigration authorities said they are also halting decisions on all asylum applications for the foreseeable future.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed in a post on X on Friday that the State Department had “paused visa issuance for ALL individuals traveling on Afghan passports”.

The move comes after authorities named Afghan national Rahmanaullah Lakanwal as the main suspect in Wednesday’s shooting in Washington, DC, which killed one National Guard member and left another in critical condition.

“The United States has no higher priority than protecting our nation and our people,” Rubio said.

Lakanwal is alleged to have ambushed West Virginia National Guard members Sarah Beckstrom and Andrew Wolfe in an unprovoked attack as they patrolled near the White House.

On Thursday evening, the Trump administration confirmed that 20-year-old Beckstrom had died from her injuries, while 24-year-old Wolfe remains in critical condition.

The CIA confirmed this week that Lakanwal had worked for the spy agency in Afghanistan before emigrating to the US shortly after the withdrawal of Western forces from the country in 2021.

The office of US Attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, announced on Friday that the charges against Lakanwal had been upgraded to first-degree murder, along with two counts of assault with intent to kill while armed.

In a separate announcement on Friday, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) director Joseph Edlow said the agency had also paused all asylum decisions in the interest of the “safety of the American people”.

“USCIS has halted all asylum decisions until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible,” Edlow said in a post on X.

A day earlier, Edlow said he had ordered “a full-scale, rigorous re-examination of every green card for every alien from every country of concern” at the direction of Trump.

The moves are the latest in a series of escalating restrictions imposed on immigration into the US at Trump’s urging.

Trump, who called the deadly Washington, DC, shooting a “terrorist attack”, has on several occasions over recent days attacked former President Joe Biden’s administration’s immigration policies, including the granting of visas to Afghan nationals who worked with US forces in Afghanistan.

Lakanwal came to the US under a Biden-era programme known as “Operation Allies Welcome”, following the US withdrawal in 2021.

In a post on his Truth Social platform on Thursday, Trump ordered authorities to re-examine all green card applications from 19 “countries of concern”, before saying he planned to suspend immigration from “all Third World countries”.

He did not define the term “Third World”, but the phrase is often used as a shorthand for developing countries in the Global South.

Trump also said that he would “remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States, or is incapable of loving our Country”.

“[I will] denaturalize migrants who undermine domestic tranquillity, and deport any foreign national who is a public charge, security risk, or non-compatible with Western civilization,” he said.

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has already taken aggressive measures to restrict immigration, announcing in October his administration would accept only 7,500 refugees in 2026 – the lowest number since 1980.

Trump’s Response to Shooting Shows Intensified Anti-Migrant Stance

November 29, 2025 Current News Articles

By Shawn McCreesh

The New York Times

Nov. 28, 2025

The president is furiously demanding limits on migration and attacking ethnic groups as he steps up his efforts to equate immigration with crime and economic distress.

The shooting of two National Guard members by a gunman identified by the authorities as an Afghan national has set off an especially intense level of fury in President Trump and a new push to step up his anti-immigration policies.

In a series of statements in the two days since the shooting on a Washington street corner just blocks from the White House, Mr. Trump has cast the attack as exactly what he has warned about and made clear that he intended to use it to pursue an even more maximalist version of his agenda.

In social media posts near midnight on Thanksgiving, he vowed to “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries” and threatened to strip U.S. citizenship from naturalized migrants “who undermine domestic tranquillity.”

He threatened to “end all Federal benefits and subsidies to noncitizens of our Country” and deport foreigners deemed to be “non-compatible with Western Civilization.”

The State Department announced Friday night that it was halting the issuing of visas for all holders of Afghan passports. That would freeze the Special Immigrant Visa program for Afghans, which had been set up for people who had helped out the U.S. military and government in the war in Afghanistan. All applicants had undergone official vetting. In June, Mr. Trump issued a travel ban on 19 countries, including Afghanistan, but there had been an exception for the Special Immigrant Visa program.

Mr. Trump used remarkably derogatory and personal terms to portray Somali refugees as preying in gangs on innocent Americans, and Representative Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, who emigrated to the United States from Somalia and became a citizen 25 years ago, as someone who “probably came into the U.S.A. illegally.” He described her as “always wrapped in her swaddling hijab.”

Those statements came after he had ordered the administration to review the status of green card holders from the 19 nations that he has subjected to the travel ban.

It is not clear what authority Mr. Trump has to follow through on his demands or how he will seek to have them carried out. Under federal law, for example, U.S. citizens can generally be denaturalized only if they are found to have concealed material facts about their background in gaining citizenship or to have misrepresented themselves in the process.

But the ferocity of his response was in keeping with his longstanding views on immigration, race and national identity and what he sees as a direct link from those factors to crime, national security threats and economic distress — even though those links, where they exist, are often tenuous and more complex than he makes out.

The killing of one of the National Guard members and the critical wounding of another is also sure to fuel further debate over the costs and benefits of using the military on the streets of American cities. Mr. Trump has already ordered another 500 National Guardsmen to Washington on top of the roughly 2,000 there already, although a federal judge ruled last week that the initial deployment was illegal.

The shooting and Mr. Trump’s response assure that immigration will remain at the center of American politics heading into the 2026 midterm election cycle and at a time when the White House is on the defensive over issues like the cost of living and the Jeffrey Epstein files.

In his second term, Mr. Trump has been primarily focused on deporting migrants from the United States. But over the last several days he has re-emphasized policies and language that date back to his first term, when he disparaged African countries, and the 2024 campaign, when he singled out groups of migrants and blamed them for crime and other social ills.

Since the shooting, Mr. Trump has seemed to fixate on Somalian refugees in Minnesota in particular.

“We’re not taking their people anymore,” Mr. Trump said on Thursday. He later wrote on social media that Tim Walz, the Democratic governor of that state, was “seriously retarded” for welcoming immigrants from Somalia.

Asked Thursday at Mar-a-Lago what Somalis in Minnesota had to do with the accused Afghan shooter in Washington, Mr. Trump replied: “Ah, nothing. But Somalians have caused a lot of trouble.”

The shooting has taken on an outsize significance in the story that Mr. Trump tells about the country and the world. The details of the tragedy dovetail neatly with so many of the issues that animated his campaign for president.

The way Mr. Trump talks about immigration invokes tropes, not all of which are supported by the facts, about out-of-control crime in big cities and about foreign invaders who take advantage of American hospitality with no intent to assimilate to an American way of life. He repeatedly brings up the Biden administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan and its border and refugee policies, which Mr. Trump had said all along would result in catastrophe.

When he spoke in Palm Beach on Thursday, he held up a photograph showing Afghans rushing onto a plane leaving their country as its government collapsed in 2021. Such scenes, he said, were incontrovertible proof of what he had been warning about for years.

He downplayed the fact that the suspect in the Washington shooting, an Afghan who had worked with C.I.A.-backed forces to help the United States in Afghanistan, had received asylum from the U.S. government in April, when Mr. Trump was president, according to three people with knowledge of the case who were not authorized to speak publicly. Mr. Trump had an answer ready to go when he was asked about that on Thursday.

“When it comes to asylum, when they’re flown in, it’s very hard to get them out,” he said. “No matter how you want to do it, it’s very hard to get them out. But we’re going to be getting them all out now.”

Edward Wong contributed reporting.

Counterterrorism officials vetted Guard shooting suspect before he entered U.S.

November 29, 2025 Current News Articles

By Mariana Alfaro, Karen DeYoung, Arelis R. Hernández, Jeremy Roebuck and Warren P. Strobel

The Washington Post

November 28, 2025

Individuals with knowledge of the process that Rahmanullah Lakanwal went through contradicted senior Trump officials’ claim that he was not scrutinized.

The Afghan national accused of shooting two National Guard members near the White House this week underwent thorough vetting by counterterrorism authorities before entering the United States, according to people with direct knowledge of the case.

Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, arrived in the U.S. through Operation Allies Welcome (OAW), a Biden-era program that helped resettle Afghan nationals after the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

The shooting has brought immediate scrutiny to that and other programs, with President Donald Trump announcing plans for a full review of those admitted and immigration officials halting the processing of requests from anyone from Afghanistan. In addition, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem and other senior Trump officials claimed, without evidence, that Lakanwal was never vetted and laid blame for his presence in the U.S. on former president Joe Biden.

The security of Afghan resettlement programs under the Biden administration has been a politically fraught issue for several years, stemming in part from the hasty and chaotic U.S. evacuation effort after the fall of the Afghan government to the Taliban.

A key question from critics has been whether any evacuees managed to enter the U.S. without proper vetting. Lakanwal, however, would not have been among them, according to the individuals, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the investigation. One of the individuals said Lakanwal was vetted years ago, before working with the CIA in Afghanistan, and then again before he arrived in the U.S. in 2021. Those examinations involved both the National Counterterrorism Center as well as the CIA, the person said.

Lakanwal was also granted asylum earlier this year, a process that would have brought its own scrutiny, according to #AfghanEvac, a coalition that supported the relocation effort — an assertion the White House did not dispute.

Homeland Security officials have said that Lakanwal arrived in the U.S. in September 2021 as part of a Biden administration initiative to resettle vulnerable Afghans, particularly those who worked along U.S. forces in Afghanistan and faced potential persecution from the Taliban. Before being admitted, all OAW applicants underwent “rigorous screening and vetting” to ensure that they were not a national security risk, officials said at the time.

Lakanwal was initially paroled into the U.S. on humanitarian grounds, according to a law enforcement official who has been briefed on the investigation into Lakanwal’s background, along with tens of thousands of other Afghan evacuees admitted to the country on similar grounds after the Taliban takeover in 2021. Each was screened through a multiagency vetting process involving the Department of Homeland Security, FBI, CIA and the National Counterterrorism Center.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, most Afghans who arrived in the U.S. under OAW were given parole for two years following mandatory screening and vetting processes that involved biometric and biographic screenings. The parole is conditional, meaning the Afghan nationals were required to receive medical screenings, critical vaccinations and other reporting requirements.

Still, in the wake of the Wednesday shooting, Trump said his administration will conduct a full review of all Afghan nationals who were admitted to the U.S. under the Biden administration. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service on Wednesday also immediately stopped processing all immigration requests related to Afghan nationals “indefinitely pending further review of security and vetting protocols.”

In an X post, Noem said the suspect “was one of the many unvetted, mass paroled into the United States.” Vice President JD Vance, also in an X post, said Lakanwal and other Afghan refugees like him came into the U.S. “unvetted” and that “they shouldn’t have been in our country.” FBI Director Kash Patel, when asked by reporters if the Biden administration should not have admitted the suspect into the country, claimed that there had been “zero vetting” of the individual.

At the same time, the White House and Department of Homeland Security officials batted away questions of why the Trump administration granted the suspect asylum earlier this year.

A DHS spokesperson said USCIS processed Lakanwal’s asylum claim on an expedited basis under the terms of a 2023 settlement agreement with Afghan evacuees who had complained of lengthy delays in the process.

“Regardless of asylum status, this monster would not have been removed due to his parole status, granted by Joe Biden,” said a White House official, who requested anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.

Federal authorities said Lakanwal shot two members of the West Virginia National Guard on Wednesday outside of the Farragut West Metro station in downtown Washington. Army Spec. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, later died of her injuries, while Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, remained in critical condition on Friday. Lakanwal is expected to face murder charges, federal prosecutors said.

One of the several gaps in Lakanwal’s story is what happened to him in the period between his evacuation from Kabul and eventual arrival in Washington state. Despite Trump’s implication that Lakanwal arrived directly in the U.S. on one of the chaotic flights from Kabul during the last days of August 2021, all of those planes landed elsewhere.

While Trump, in remarks Thursday, called them “those infamous flights that everybody was talking about” and claimed that “nobody knew who was coming in,” the vast majority of them went to Qatar, where the Afghans were housed and underwent vetting at the U.S. air base at Al-Udeid.

Lakanwal, who the administration has said did not arrive in this country until September, would have been vetted by both U.S. and a third country, most likely Qatar, before being allowed to depart on a flight to the U.S. and housed on a military base, according to current and former U.S. and foreign officials involved in the process who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive subject.

“Anybody evacuated by us needed to get approved vetting both from the U.S. and the country that would be hosting them,” said an official with one of those countries. “It had to be that government, asking to get people out, signing documents saying they would host and that they had vetted them.”

Those who had worked for a U.S. government agency or in other sensitive, U.S.-allied jobs in Afghanistan and were eligible to apply for a Special Immigration Visa, or SIV, also went through another round of vetting.

SIV applicants from Afghanistan are required to prove Afghan citizenship and that they worked there “on behalf of the U.S. government for a minimum of 12 months,” along with a letter of recommendation from their U.S. supervisor. A special unit in the State Department validates paperwork and, if warranted, arranges for the required Chief of Mission approval that must also accompany all SIV applications.

At the time of the shooting, Lakanwal had received chief of mission approval but had not yet been approved for a green card, according to a fact sheet distributed by #AfghanEvac. One person familiar with the program said that in addition, the CIA had its own process for vetting and assisting its former Afghan employees.

“I assume the screening to recruit him for the CIA is much deeper and deep intrusive than any screening just for parole,” said Muzaffar Chishti, senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute. “So the Biden administration could not have known he was a risk.”

And once in the U.S., additional vetting would have taken place before Lakanwal and his family were assigned to a government-approved relocation agency and destination.

“It is so, so hard for folks to get in,” said Shawn VanDiver, president of #AfghanEvac. “It’s just not as easy as JD Vance and Kash Patel and these others want to make [it seem]. It’s just not that easy.”

In one of his first acts on entering office, Trump froze the number of visas available for Afghans, many of whom were far along in the SIV approval process or had already been approved.

VanDiver suggested that Lakanwal eventually submitted a separate asylum application due to the extended wait time and unclear future for SIVs.

“He passed vetting a million times,” VanDiver said. “If he had been a problem, he would have gotten caught when he went to another base … when he applied for SIV, for Chief of Mission approval, when he got asylum.”

The immigration policy changes imposed Wednesday, meanwhile, extend a June rule imposing restrictions and additional scrutiny on foreign nationals seeking entry into the U.S. from 19 countries. Now, the policy is targeting foreign nationals living in the United States. For those not granted asylum or SIV, temporary humanitarian parole status given to most of the Afghans who were admitted to the U.S. has already expired, with the administration not offering any extension.

Many Afghans waiting for resettlement to the U.S. in other countries that agreed to accept them after they were evacuated, and their allies, responded with shock Thursday to the news that USCIS would stop processing their cases.

Andrew Sullivan, the executive director of No One Left Behind, a veteran-led group supporting Afghan evacuees, told The Washington Post on Thursday that while he understands the Trump administration’s imperative to review Afghan resettlement programs in the wake of the shooting, he hopes the administration can find a way to balance the need for rigorous vetting with the imperative to protect Afghans who helped save American lives.

“I have, without a doubt, had my life saved by Afghans that worked on our behalf,” said Sullivan, who served two combat deployments in Iraq and commanded an infantry company in Afghanistan. “I hope that we can work constructively with the administration to ensure that there are no risks for Afghans that have arrived. But, my personal experience has been they’re some of the most dutiful and patriotic people on this planet.”

Marianne LeVine contributed to this report.

UN’s Bennett Urges U.S. Not to Penalize Afghan Community After Washington Shooting

November 28, 2025 Current News Articles

By Fidel Rahmati

Khaama Press

November 27, 2025

UN rapporteur Richard Bennett urged the United States to avoid broad punitive measures against Afghans after an Afghan suspect was linked to the Washington shooting.

A shooting outside the White House that left two U.S. National Guard members critically injured has sparked sharp reactions after the suspect was identified as an Afghan citizen.

UN Special Rapporteur Richard Bennett said on X that the actions of one individual must not be used to punish or stigmatize an entire community. He stressed that accountability should apply only to the perpetrator.

Bennett added that punishing all Afghans for one person’s actions would be unjust and harmful, especially for vulnerable refugees seeking safety.

U.S. security officials have identified the suspect as Rahmanullah, an Afghan national. American media reported that the condition of the injured guards remains critical.

Following the incident, U.S. immigration authorities temporarily halted the processing of Afghan refugee applications, and President Donald Trump called for a review of all Afghan asylum files.

Reports from Fox News claim the suspect had previously worked with CIA forces in Afghanistan and entered the United States in 2021. Rights advocates warn that the case should not fuel broad restrictions or collective punishment against Afghan refugees.

Trump Vows Permanent Ban on Immigration from “Third-World” Nations

November 28, 2025 Current News Articles

By Fidel Rahmati

Khaama Press

November 28, 2025

U.S. President Donald Trump says he will permanently stop immigration from “third-world” countries, unveiling plans for a sweeping overhaul of America’s current migration system.

U.S. President Donald Trump says he intends to permanently block immigration from what he calls “third-world countries,” outlining a plan for a fundamental overhaul of America’s migration system.

Trump said in a post on Truth Social that the United States would no longer accept migrants from low-income nations, framing the proposal as part of his effort to “rebuild the American system.” He argued that recent migration waves had weakened U.S. technological progress and strained living standards.

Announcing a broad rollback of admissions, Trump said he would revoke all entries he labels “illegal,” particularly those made during Joe Biden’s administration. “Anyone who does not contribute to America’s future or respect its values will not be allowed to stay,” he wrote.

Trump added that federal welfare assistance for asylum seekers would end, and that citizenship could be stripped from individuals he says jeopardize domestic security. He pledged to expel anyone he considers a burden, a threat, or incompatible with what he described as Western civilization.

Immigration has remained one of the most divisive issues in U.S. politics, and Trump’s previous term was marked by repeated clashes over border and refugee policies. His latest position has again thrust the debate into the center of national politics amid rising tensions.

Analysts warn that a policy shift of this scale could destabilize millions of migrants and complicate America’s relationships with partner nations. Rights groups say the rhetoric risks deepening fear within immigrant communities and undermining humanitarian protections.

With the election season approaching, experts expect immigration to dominate public discourse, as both parties brace for a renewed battle over one of the country’s most polarizing issues.

Iran Voices Concern Over Afghanistan–Pakistan Tensions, Offers Mediation

November 28, 2025 Current News Articles

Mitra Majeedy

Tolo News

28 Nov 2025

Ali Larijani said that Afghanistan and Pakistan are “two Muslim countries” that have both suffered from prolonged wars.

The Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council expressed concern over ongoing tensions between Kabul and Islamabad.

Ali Larijani, in an interview with Pakistani media, said that Afghanistan and Pakistan are “two Muslim countries” that have both suffered from prolonged wars. He stated that during separate meetings with Pakistani officials, including the country’s Prime Minister and President, he emphasized Tehran’s readiness to help resolve the tensions between Kabul and Islamabad.

Ali Larijani said: “We are deeply concerned about the current tensions and clashes between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Both countries are Muslim. Afghanistan has faced years of war, and Pakistan has only recently emerged from conflict. Therefore, the ongoing tension between them is troubling.”

It has been nearly two months since tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan began. Efforts to resolve them have included three rounds of negotiations mediated by Turkey and Qatar, but the most recent talks also ended without result.

While political analysts consider the role of mediating countries important, they emphasize that unreasonable demands will not lead to an agreement between Kabul and Islamabad.

Samiullah Ahmadzai, a political analyst, stated: “Tensions between the Islamic Emirate and Pakistan are at a high level and require a new intelligence and security framework. These kinds of negotiations cannot resolve such issues, as a major unresolved security equation remains between the Islamic Emirate and Pakistan. The current regional conditions are also not conducive to resolving it.”

Bilal Ahmad Omar, an international relations expert, said: “The demands need to be carefully reviewed, which parts have been rejected and what issues are contentious for both sides. Delegations must conduct impartial assessments and resolve matters that can be addressed.”

Larijani’s remarks come as drone attacks were carried out early Tuesday in three eastern provinces of Afghanistan, resulting in the deaths of several civilians.
The Islamic Emirate blamed Pakistan for the attacks, but Islamabad denied responsibility.

Baradar Warns Against Any Violation of Afghan Territory

November 28, 2025 Current News Articles

Bibi Amina Hakimi

TOLOnews’ Reporter

28 Nov 2025

Afghans in US issue plea to Trump after Washington DC shooting

November 28, 2025 Current News Articles

James FitzGeraldand

Mahfouz Zubaide

BBC News

November 28, 2025

Afghans living in the US have condemned Wednesday’s “deeply tragic” deadly shooting attack in Washington DC, while stressing that the suspect – who moved to the US from Afghanistan four years ago – does not represent them.

The alleged gunman, 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, entered America under a programme that offered special immigration protections to Afghans who worked with the US in the wake of the its troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

National Guard member Sarah Beckstrom, 20, was killed in Wednesday’s shooting, and a colleague, Andrew Wolfe, 24, is said to be fighting for his life.

In response, US President Donald Trump has halted the processing of all immigration requests from Afghans, ordered a review of green cards issued to individuals from 19 countries, and threatened a wider crackdown on migrants from what he calls “third-world countries”.

The Afghan Community Coalition of United States expressed its sympathy for families of the victims, calling for a “comprehensive investigation” but urging the US government not to delay or suspend Afghan immigration claims.

“Twenty years of Afghan-US partnership must not be forgotten,” the coalition’s statement said, nodding to the two-decade effort launched by the US in 2001 to overthrow Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers and establish security in the country.

National Guard member dies after shooting in Washington DC

Afghans living in America told the BBC they had been horrified by the Washington DC attack, which they emphasised was the act of just one person.

They spoke anonymously out of fear of reprisals by the Taliban, which took back control of Afghanistan following the US troop withdrawal in 2021.

One of the Afghans, who made his move after the US withdrawal, described Wednesday’s incident as “deeply tragic”. He noted the timing ahead of Thanksgiving, and amid a “highly charged political environment in Washington DC”.

But he highlighted that the shooting was an “individual criminal offence, not representative of a community”.

“Afghans in the United States are hardworking, tax paying members of society,” he added. “They remain grateful to America for the evacuation efforts during the crisis in Kabul.”

Thousands of Afghans scrambled to escape the country in 2021, many via Kabul, as the US withdrew its troops and the Taliban swept in.

The suspect, Mr Lakanwal, is said by US officials to have had a relationship with US forces in Afghanistan while they were stationed there. He helped guard US forces at Kabul airport at the time of the withdrawal, a former military commander who served alongside him told the BBC.

He came to the US the same year. He applied for asylum in 2024, and his application was granted earlier this year, an official told the BBC’s partner CBS News.

He suspected that it was an “individual crime which is committed without any support, participation and co-operation of others”, and said the attack “should not be counted for the whole community”.

Another Afghan man living in the US who spoke to the BBC said the shooting had been a “very devastating event for all immigrants”, adding that the political reaction had left many people in a state of uncertainty.

“It’s really bad for everyone that the Trump administration wants to re-evaluate the process of immigration,” he said. “It’s time consuming and no-one knows what will happen.”

The situation felt more acute due to the threats in his country of origin, he said: “For us Afghans there’s problem for us in Afghanistan as well as here.”

For Shooting Suspect, a Long Path of Conflict From Afghanistan to America

November 28, 2025 Current News Articles

Campbell Robertson, Hamed Aleaziz and Jack Healy

The New York Times

Nov. 27, 2025

Rahmanullah Lakanwal’s path from a village in Afghanistan to the corner in Washington, D.C., where authorities say he opened fire on two National Guard troops was forged by America’s longest war.

He was 5 years old when the U.S. military invaded after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and as a young man he enlisted with a “Zero Unit,” an Afghan paramilitary force that worked with Americans.

That connection appears to have given Mr. Lakanwal a ticket out of Afghanistan when the Taliban toppled the American-backed government in 2021, allowing him to flee with his wife and children. They began a new life in Bellingham, Wash., where he worked as a delivery driver and his children played soccer in the hallways of their modest apartment complex.

On Thursday, the authorities were scrambling to understand what motivated Mr. Lakanwal to forgo that new start, drive cross-country to Washington, where officials say he fatally shot one Guard member and critically wounded another outside a Metro station.

It was also unclear why he chose the street corner where Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe and Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom of the West Virginia National Guard were patrolling on Wednesday afternoon. Officials say he ambushed them outside the Farragut West Metro station, firing repeatedly at one Guard member with a .357 revolver and then turning it on the other before he was shot himself.

Currently Mr. Lakanwal is under watch at a Washington, D.C., hospital, where he is being treated for his wounds. He is being charged with three counts of assault with intent to kill while armed, said Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. President Trump announced on Thursday evening that Specialist Beckstrom had died of her wounds, which meant the suspect was now expected to be charged with first-degree murder.

Mr. Lakanwal was raised in a village in the province of Khost in southeastern Afghanistan, growing up in a country at war. At some point, he joined a Zero Unit, according to a person briefed on the investigation and an Afghan intelligence officer familiar with the matter. Zero Units, which were formally part of the Afghan intelligence service but operated outside the usual chain of command, were largely recruited, trained, equipped and overseen by the C.I.A., according to Human Rights Watch.

These units specialized in night raids and clandestine missions; Taliban officials and human rights groups described them as “death squads.” Human Rights Watch said it had documented several instances in which the units were responsible for “extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances, indiscriminate airstrikes, attacks on medical facilities, and other violations of international humanitarian law.” The C.I.A. has denied such allegations of brutality, saying they were the result of Taliban propaganda.

Mr. Lakanwal’s unit was based in Kandahar, a city that was devastated by bombings and assassinations during the war. According to an intelligence officer, one of Mr. Lakanwal’s brothers was the unit’s deputy commander.

A childhood friend, who asked to be identified only as Muhammad because he feared Taliban reprisals, said that Mr. Lakanwal had suffered from mental health issues and was disturbed by the casualties his unit had caused.

“He would tell me and our friends that their military operations were very tough, their job was very difficult, and they were under a lot of pressure,” Muhammad said.

Zero Units ended up playing a pivotal role in the U.S. military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, securing the remaining U.S. and NATO bases and the Kabul airport. As the Taliban retook control, many members of the Kandahar unit were evacuated with U.S. help. Many resettled in the Seattle area.

Mr. Lakanwal was among the thousands of Afghans who were brought to the United States as part of a temporary program called Operation Allies Welcome. That program was put in place under President Biden to manage the immigration of Afghan nationals fleeing Taliban rule, including those who had helped U.S. troops.

The program allowed about 76,000 evacuated Afghans to enter the United States for humanitarian reasons after the U.S. military’s chaotic retreat, according to the Washington-based Migration Policy Institute.

The State Department approved Whatcom County, Wash., on the Canadian border, as a resettlement location for World Relief, a Christian humanitarian organization that helps refugees navigate their first 90 days in the United States. Dozens of Afghan families arrived in the county in the weeks after the Taliban takeover.

Mr. Lakanwal ended up in Bellingham, the Whatcom County seat. Authorities said he lived there with his wife and several children.

He received asylum from the U.S. government in April, according to three people with knowledge of the case who were not authorized to speak publicly.

For several weeks this past summer, according to information provided by Amazon, Mr. Lakanwal worked as a driver for Amazon Flex, delivering packages as an independent contractor. His last delivery was in August.

Kristina Widman said she owned a property in Bellingham that was at one time rented to him and his family. The rental had been set up through World Relief, Ms. Widman said.

In a statement, World Relief declined to say whether it had helped Mr. Lakanwal or his family and said it did not sponsor Afghans brought to the United States since 2021. Instead, the group said it provided services “to those assigned to us” by the government.

Calin Lincicum, a former neighbor, described the apartment complex where Mr. Lakanwal had lived most recently as a rent-subsidized home for “hard cases” — people with disabilities, fleeing domestic violence, in recovery and older residents on oxygen.

He and other neighbors said Mr. Lakanwal’s family kept to themselves, but he recalled once discussing Afghan food with Mr. Lakanwal’s wife. Some neighbors, emerging from the building into the gray Thanksgiving afternoon, said they felt unsettled to learn that the suspect had lived in the same complex.

Rachael Haycox said she had been asleep inside her third floor unit in the Bellingham apartments when the sound of a raid woke her around 3 a.m. on Thursday.

“We thought they were ICE at first,” Ms. Haycox said. “But they yelled, ‘F.B.I.’ and that they had a search warrant.”

She said a drone and a wheeled robot were sent into the apartment for the search, which lasted about two hours. By Thursday afternoon, law enforcement officers had gone, and nobody responded to knocks on the now-cracked apartment door.

Reporting was contributed by Lauren McCarthy, Minho Kim, Jonathan Wolfe, Elian Peltier, Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Fahim Abed, Soumya Karlamangla, Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs and Sofia Schwarzwalder. Alain Delaquérière contributed research.

James FitzGeraldand

National Guard member dies after shooting in Washington DC

Recent Posts