Two National Guard soldiers shot in "targeted" attack near White House - National & International News -

Two National Guard soldiers shot in “targeted” attack near White House

A man identified as a 29-year-old Afghan national is accused of shooting two members of West Virginia’s National Guard in Washington D.C. near the White House. The names of the soldiers, who are in critical condition, have not been released. However, NBC news reported that one of the victims was a man and the other a woman.

The victims of the shooting were part of a 416-strong contingent from West Virginia. They were deployed to D.C. as part of Trump’s controversial deployment of 2,375 National Guard troops in the city. After this morning’s incident, Trump said he was ordering the deployment of 500 more troops to the nation’s capital. The administration is currently appealing a judge’s ruling that Trump’s use of the Home Rule Act to deploy troops to D.C. is illegal.

Officials have described the attack as “targeted” and Trump described it as an “act of terror”. The accused shooter, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, was one of thousands of Afghans who was paroled to the US in Operation Allies Welcome in 2021. Allies Welcome began under the Biden administration after the US ended its 20-year military occupation of Afghanistan. The program gave refuge to Afghans who had rendered aid to US forces in the country, as well as their family members. Afghans who collaborated with the US occupation have faced violent reprisal from the Taliban, who took control of Afghanistan as the US withdrew.

Afghans paroled to the US under Allies Welcome were extensively vetted, a process that has often delayed their arrival on US soil for years. Nevertheless, Trump has vowed to increase scrutiny of the tens of thousands of Afghans who came to the US under the program.