Two US National Guard soldiers were critically wounded on Wednesday after being shot in a brazen daytime attack a few blocks from the White House, with US President Donald Trump terming the incident an “act of terror”.
The incident, which left two Guard members critically wounded, was “an act of evil, an act of hatred and an act of terror,” Trump said.
“It was a crime against our entire nation.”
He confirmed that the man taken into custody after the daylight shooting two blocks from the White House was “a foreigner who entered our country from Afghanistan”.
The suspect had arrived in the United States in 2021 “on those infamous flights,” Trump said, referring to the evacuations of Afghans fleeing as the Taliban took over the country in the wake of the US retreat after 20 years of war.
“We must now reexamine every single alien who has entered our country from Afghanistan” under former president Joe Biden, Trump said.
“We must take all necessary measures to ensure the removal of any alien from any country who does not belong here, or add benefit to our country if they can’t love our country, we don’t want them.”
The Department of Homeland Security identified the suspect as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national. According to CNN, the suspect applied for asylum in 2024, which was granted by the Trump administration in April 2025.
Separately, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services said it had stopped processing all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals indefinitely.
“The protection and safety of our homeland and of the American people remains our singular focus and mission,” the US Citizenship and Immigration Services said in a post on X.
Reacting to the incident, former US president Barack Obama said “violence has no place in America”.
“Michelle and I are praying for the servicemembers shot in Washington, DC today, and send our love to their families as they enter this holiday season under the most tragic of circumstances,” he said.
‘Targeted shooting’
Trump was in Florida at the time of the attack, which prompted the White House to go into lockdown as law enforcement from multiple federal and city agencies swarmed the area.
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser called it “a targeted shooting” by a single assailant.
“That individual has been taken into custody,” she said.
The shooting occurred around 2:15 pm local time, when the two soldiers — a man and a woman — were conducting what authorities described as a “high-visibility patrol”.
According to DC Police Executive Assistant Chief Jeffrey Carroll, the attacker rounded a corner, raised a firearm, and “ambushed these members of the National Guard” without warning.
Both soldiers were struck multiple times and rushed to local trauma centers, where they remain in critical condition. The suspect was also injured during the encounter.
Carroll said investigators were still working to determine whose gunfire wounded him, but confirmed that there were no additional suspects and no ongoing threat.
Senior counterterrorism officials confirmed to ABC News that the FBI was examining the shooting as a possible act of international terrorism, and investigators were looking into whether the attack may have been inspired by a foreign militant group.
Authorities stressed, however, that no motive had been established.
Trump was the first to announce the incident publicly, writing on social media that “the animal that shot the two National Guardsmen” was also severely wounded and would “pay a very steep price”.
He praised the National Guard and federal law-enforcement agencies as “truly great people”.
Following the shooting, US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth said the president directed him to deploy an additional 500 National Guard troops to Washington “immediately,” saying: “This happened just steps away from the White House. It will not stand.”
A brief security lockdown was also imposed at the White House as the situation unfolded, though Trump was not in the capital at the time.
“The president has been briefed,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
Confusion briefly erupted when West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey issued — then retracted — a statement saying the two soldiers had died. His office later said the information was based on “early and conflicting reports”.
Unease within Muslim communities
A relative of Lakanwal’s told NBC News that the suspect had arrived in the US in September 2021, after serving for 10 years in the Afghan army alongside US Special Forces.
According to the relative, Lakanwal spent part of his military service stationed at a base in Kandahar. The relative who spoke to NBC News had also served with him, supporting US troops.
“We were the ones targeted by the Taliban in Afghanistan,” he said. “I cannot believe that he might have done this,” the relative added.
Lakanwal came to the US five months after Biden announced the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan.
Originally from Khost province, Lakanwal had been living in Bellingham, Washington, with his wife and five children, the relative said.
The attack also triggered unease within Muslim communities.
“We hope this report is incorrect,” a Muslim political commentator, who declined to be named, told Dawn after initial reports about the nationality of the suspect.
“If it turns out to be true, it may trigger a strong backlash against Muslim communities across the United States.”
National Guard personnel from several Republican-led states, including West Virginia, have been deployed in Washington since August, when Trump expanded an earlier mission aimed at combating street crime and supporting immigration enforcement initiatives.
The soldiers shot on Wednesday were part of that deployment.
