Fox News, citing a senior U.S. official, reports that Rahmanullah Lakanwal—the suspect accused of shooting National Guard members in Washington, D.C.—had worked with the CIA since he was 15.
According to the official, the CIA vetted Lakanwal before recruiting him to ensure he had no ties to extremist groups. He reportedly began working with the agency in 2011. The official added that at the time, “age falsification” was common among Afghans seeking work with U.S. forces, allowing applicants to present themselves as 18 or older.
The New York Times reported that Lakanwal served in the CIA-backed “Zero Units,” elite paramilitary squads recruited, trained, equipped, and directed by the agency.
Allegations of Abuses
These units conducted night raids and covert missions. Human Rights Watch has documented numerous cases suggesting these forces carried out “extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances,” indiscriminate airstrikes, assaults on medical facilities, and other violations of international law.
The CIA has dismissed these accusations as “Taliban propaganda.”
Rangin Dadfar Spanta, former Afghan national security adviser, also stated that Lakanwal “was involved in killing Afghan civilians.”
According to an intelligence officer, one of Lakanwal’s brothers served as deputy commander of the same force—Zero Unit 03.
Zero Units played a central role during the 2021 U.S. withdrawal, protecting remaining American and NATO installations and securing Kabul airport.
The advocacy group Afghan Evac says Lakanwal belonged to Unit “03,” which operated in Kandahar, Helmand, and Uruzgan, based out of a compound widely known as Mullah Omar’s former residence. “NDS 03” was one of five CIA-supported paramilitary units.
A senior U.S. official told Fox News that background checks before Lakanwal’s entry into the United States showed “clean” records. The U.S. government has conducted annual reviews of Afghan evacuees since 2021, especially after a disrupted extremist plot in Oklahoma involving an Afghan migrant.
Lakanwal is accused of shooting two National Guard members on Wednesday afternoon, killing one and critically injuring the other. He is from Khost province and arrived in the U.S. in September 2021. He lived in Washington, D.C., with his wife and five children.
A childhood friend, Mohammad, told the New York Times that Lakanwal suffered from psychological distress and was troubled by civilian casualties from the Zero Unit operations. “He told us that their missions were very tough, the work was hard, and the pressure on them was enormous,” Mohammad said.
