A little earlier, CIA Director John Ratcliffe confirmed that the suspected attacker was “a member a partner force” in Kandahar, in Afghanistan.

After the US military went into Afghanistan, it worked with other Nato allies to develop new Afghan security forces.

These were comprised of Afghan nationals, and by the end of 2014 they had taken responsibility for the security of Afghanistan back from international troops.

These forces were made up of a whole patchwork of units, with various responsibilities, including combat and intelligence.

They were supported by a much smaller number of US troops, who largely offered training and other non-combat support.

• We have more on the history of US involvement in Afghanistan in our earlier post

Nomia Iqbal
North America correspondent

This horrific shooting and the identity of the suspect has turned this into a huge political story, with the safety of a refugee program under President Biden brought into sharp focus.

It appears that Rahmanullah Lakanwal was brought to the US under the “Operation Allies Welcome” program designed to help those Afghans who risked their lives assisting US troops in Afghanistan.

#AfghanEvac has been giving more details – they are a non-partisan, self-organized coalition of more than 200 groups and organizations. Their members are veterans, current and former members of national security who worked with the Biden administration to help with settlements during withdrawal in 2021.

They say Lakanwal previously served in NDS-03, one of Afghanistan’s elite counterterrorism units operated by the CIA, with direct US intelligence and military support.

They add that he arrived under humanitarian parole – the temporary authority used to evacuate tens of thousands of American citizens, lawful permanent residents, Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) applicants, and at-risk Afghan partners – and that he was later granted asylum in April 2025.

The motivation of Lakanwal – who drove more than 40 hours from Washington State to carry out the attack – is unknown but #AfghanEvac says his case “appears to be a tragic outlier — not a pattern”.

They’ve rejected “vetting failures” as premature and not backed by evidence, defending Afghan evacuees in general as having exceptionally “low involvement in violent crime”.

As we’ve been reporting, the alleged shooter had previously worked with the CIA in Afghanistan. Let’s take a quick look at the US’s recent history with the country.

Why was the US military in Afghanistan?

• In late 2001, the US was pursuing Osama Bin Laden, the leader of the Islamist military group al-Qaeda, which had just carried out the 9/11 attacks
• Bin Laden had been operating from Afghanistan at the time but the Taliban – who ran the country – refused to hand him over. The US military was deployed to the country and removed the Taliban from power
• The US, and other allied countries, kept a significant military presence in Afghanistan until 2014, when thousands of international troops were withdrawn. Those that remained were largely focused on supporting the Afghan security forces

When, and why, did it withdraw?

• In February 2020, the US and the Taliban signed a deal under which Washington agreed to withdraw all troops
• President Joe Biden set a deadline to pull all US troops out of Afghanistan by 11 September 2021 – he faced widespread criticism for the swift withdrawal
• The Taliban seized back the entirety of Afghanistan in just over a month, with its capital – Kabul – falling on 15 August 2021
• The US offered special visas to Afghan nationals who worked directly with the US military and feared retribution from the Taliban as a result of that co-operation

After 29-year-old suspect Rahmanullah Lakanwal was identified as an Afghan national yesterday, the US suspended all immigration requests from Afghans.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services said the decision was made pending a review of “security and vetting protocols”.

Reacting from Mar-a-Lago, US President Donald Trump labelled the attack an “act of terror”, adding that he would take steps to remove foreigners “from any country who does not belong here”.

Lakanwal is believed to have arrived in the US in September 2021 alongside tens of thousands of others who fled Afghanistan.

They were welcomed to the US under Joe Biden’s programme, which followed the Taliban’s capture of the country after the chaotic withdrawal of US forces.

But, Trump said following the shooting that the US “must now re-examine every single alien who has entered our country from Afghanistan under Biden”.

• We’ve more detail on Trump’s response to the attack in our news story

US Attorney for DC, Jeanine Pirro, outlines how the incident unfolded yesterday – the day before Thanksgiving.

We’ve just received the first images of the two victims of yesterday’s attack.

They are National Guard members Andrew Wolfe (24) and Sarah Beckstrom (20).

During the news conference, US officials displayed a picture of the suspect. His name is Rahmanullah Lakanwal – an Afghan who lived in Washington State, and who previously worked with the US in Afghanistan.

We can now bring you comments from CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who told CBS, the BBC’s US partner, that the alleged shooter was allowed to enter the US “due to his prior work with the US government”.

“In the wake of the disastrous Biden withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Biden administration justified bringing the alleged shooter to the United States in September 2021 due to his prior work with the US government, including CIA, as a member of a partner force in Kandahar, which ended shortly following the chaotic evacuation,” Ratcliffe says.

FBI Director Kash Patel says “there is confirmation now that the subject had relationship in Afghanistan with partner forces,” adding that the US is “fully investigating that aspect of his background”.

Here’s a summary of what we just heard from FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro:

• The two victims of yesterday’s shooting were named as Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Andrew Wolfe, 24
• They were “ambushed” in a brazen attack, Jeanine Pirro said. They are both in critical condition after one was struck down and shot again while another was shot several times
• The suspect, 29-year-old Afghan Rahmanullah Lakanwal drove from Washington state before the attack and “had a relationship in Afghanistan with partner forces” before moving to the US, Patel said
• Pirro said Lakanwal faces charges of assault with intent to kill while armed, but this will be upgraded to murder in the first degree if either of the guards passes away
• It is too early to ascribe a motive to the attack, officials said, but Patel added that there is currently an “ongoing investigation of terrorism”

Back to FBI Director Kash Patel who says that the FBI was able to track down the last known residence of the suspect.

Patel says they seized “numerous electronic devices” there including mobile phones, laptops, and iPads which are currently being analysed.

The team have followed leads that led them to San Diego, he says, adding that “we will go anywhere in the country or the world where the evidence leads us”.

With that, the press conference comes to an end.

Pirro says the shooter was using a 357 Smith & Wesson revolver. She says that’s a “six shooter – that kind of tells us how many shots he had”.

Pirro raises her voice when a journalist asks her whether the National Guard should have been stationed in Washington DC in the first place.

She says: “I don’t even want to talk about whether they should have been there.

“We better kiss the ground and thank God that the president said it’s time to bring in more law enforcement to make sure that a city that had the fourth-highest homicide rate in the country, that that violence was quelled.”

• For context, a six shooter is a repeating handgun with six chambers – meaning it can fire six shots without reloading.

Back to US Attorney Jeanine Pirro, who says “this is a fluid investigation” with teams working around the clock.

“It’s too soon to say what the motive is,” she says. “There are definitely areas we’re looking into but not ready to say.”

Watch the moment US Attorney Jeanine Pirro names soldiers shot in Washington DC.

Patel says he’s spoken to CIA Director John Ratcliffe, as well as Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.

He says there is now confirmation that the subject “had a relationship in Afghanistan with partner forces”, before moving to the US.

This is being fully investigated to include any known associates of Lakanwal’s either overseas or in the US, Patel adds.

This is “an ongoing investigation of terrorism”, FBI Director Kash Patel says.

He says the FBI began collecting evidence immediately, doing “block by block” canvasses, interviewing witnesses and sending a firearm for lab analysis.

Patel says the suspect’s last known residence in the state of Washington has been searched.

He says everyone with links to the suspect will be interviewed.

“This is what happens in this country when people are allowed in who are not properly vetted,” says Pirro – referencing the special immigration scheme under which the suspect entered the country.

She describes the soldiers and other volunteers as “the lines that separate a civilised society from a barbaric one”.

This was a “direct challenge to law and order in our nation’s capital” she says.

• The US has suspended processing all immigration requests from Afghans since the shooting

Pirro now sets out the charges currently facing the suspect Rahmanullah Lakanwal.

Right now, she says, Lakanwal faces three counts of assault with intent to kill while armed and will also be charged with possession of a firearm during a crime of violence.

The 29-year-old suspect faces 15 years in prison if convicted for the offence of assault to kill, she explains.

Pirro explains that her teams will change the charges if the condition of the guards changes.

“We are praying they survive, and that the highest charge will not have to be murder in the first degree,” she says.

“Make no mistake, if they do not that will certainly be the charge.”

Pirro says the suspect has been identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan who entered the US under Biden’s “Operation Allies Welcome”, established after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.

He lived in Bellingham, Washington, with his wife and, “we think”, five children, Pirro says.

She adds she is working closely with federal partners, including the FBI and the DHS, to review his immigration history and the vetting process itself.

“What we know about him is that he drove his vehicle across country, from the state of Washington, with the intended target of coming to our nation’s capital,” she says.

Pirro next names the two National Guard members as Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Andrew Wolfe, 24.

They were uniformed members of the West Virignia National guard and were in Washington DC in response to Trump’s executive order, she says.

They “volunteered to put their lives on the line for people they don’t even know,” Pirro says.

She recaps the day’s shooting, saying that the soldiers were ambushed in a “brazen and targeted” attack. One was struck down and shot again, and another was shot several times, she says.

The shooter was then subdued at the scene, she adds.