Trump calls DC Guard attack ‘act of terror’, blames Afghan refugee brought in under Biden
text_fields
Washington: US President Donald Trump has condemned the shooting of two National Guard members near the White House as an “act of terror” and ordered the deployment of an additional 500 troops to bolster security in the US capital.
In a televised address from Florida, Trump called the attack in downtown Washington “an act of evil, an act of hatred and an act of terror”, describing it as a crime against the nation and against humanity. He said the suspect in custody was a foreign national from Afghanistan who entered the US in 2021 as a refugee, and blamed the previous Biden administration’s policies for allowing him into the country.
Trump vowed to “re-examine every single alien” from Afghanistan who arrived under Biden-era resettlement programmes and said the US should remove any foreign national “who does not belong here” or “cannot love our country”. Earlier on X, he said the gunman would “pay a very steep price” and praised the National Guard, military and law-enforcement personnel as “truly great people”.
The shooting took place on Wednesday afternoon less than 500 metres from the White House, where two members of the West Virginia National Guard on duty in downtown Washington were shot and left in critical condition. Local media and federal sources identified the alleged attacker as 29-year-old Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who was also seriously injured and taken into custody.
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser described the incident as a “targeted shooting”, saying the assailant appeared to specifically aim at the Guard personnel. FBI Director Kash Patel said the case would be prosecuted at the federal level as an assault on federal law-enforcement officers and confirmed that investigators were treating the incident as a potential act of international terrorism.
Following the attack, Trump ordered 500 additional National Guard troops to be sent to Washington “to help protect our capital city” as part of an expanded security posture. The new deployment comes on top of an existing mission under which about 2,400 Guard personnel are already stationed in the District of Columbia, including roughly 958 from the DC National Guard and around 1,300 from eight other states.
Guard contingents from multiple states have been rotated into Washington for months under Trump’s wider public-safety crackdown, a mission that has since been extended to several major US cities. Supporters argue the deployment has helped stabilise high-crime areas, while critics warn that a prolonged military-style presence risks blurring the line between civilian policing and military operations.
(Inputs from IANS)