KABUL, Dec 3 (Reuters) – The shooting of National Guard members in Washington, D.C., over which an Afghan immigrant has been charged, has nothing to do with Afghanistan’s people or its government, Afghan Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said on Wednesday.
Muttaqi’s comments are the first on the incident by the Afghan Taliban government, and come a week after events in Washington when suspect Rahmanullah Lakanwal is accused of opening fire on guard members, killing one and critically wounding another.
On Tuesday, Lakanwal was charged with murder and other offenses as he made his first court appearance, appearing remotely from a hospital bed.
“This incident has nothing to do with the honorable people of Afghanistan or with the Afghan government,” Muttaqi said.
“This is an individual criminal act, and the person who committed it was trained by the Americans themselves.”
U.S. officials have said Lakanwal was part of a CIA-backed unit in Afghanistan. He entered the U.S. in 2021 through then-President Joe Biden’s Operation Allies Welcome scheme for those fearing reprisal by the Taliban forces, who seized control of Afghanistan after the U.S. military’s withdrawal.
“They (the Americans) trained him, they assigned him, and through an illegal process, contrary to any international standard, they brought him from Afghanistan to the United States,” Muttaqi said.
Lakanwal’s status as an Afghan immigrant quickly became a flashpoint in Trump’s immigration crackdown. He was granted asylum under Trump.
(Reporting by Mohammad Yunus Yawar; Editing by Andrew Heavens, Alexandra Hudson)
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