Afghanistan shifts blame for Washington shooter to U.S. as second Afghan national arrested

Afghanistan’s foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, has said distanced the Afghan government from recent incidents involving Afghan nationals on U.S. soil.

He instead blamed the American training and vetting systems for the incidents.

Muttaqi said this while addressing political analysts at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kabul on Wednesday.

The minister spoke specifically about Rahman Ullah Lakanwal, the Afghan national accused of killing a member of the national guard and seriously injuring another in Washington last week.

He told the audience that the attacker “was trained by the Americans themselves” and had left Afghanistan “through an illegal process that did not match international norms”.

He added that Afghans had already suffered for more than two decades at the hands of Western-backed forces and insisted the latest case “does not relate to the Afghan government or people”.

The minister renewed calls for diplomatic ties and consular services in the United States, arguing that embassies serve as “the homes of their citizens”, and that proper consular channels are essential “to prevent people from being forced to travel illegally or engage in unlawful acts”.

Hours after his remarks, the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that immigration officers had arrested “an unvetted Afghan national” near Washington.

The suspect identified as Jaan Shah Safi was alleged to have provided support to the Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) and supplied weapons to “his father who is a commander of a militia group in Afghanistan”.

DHS said the Biden administration had admitted “nearly 190,000 unvetted Afghan aliens”.

According to Afghan journalist Bilal Sarwary, Safi was a long-time National Directorate of Security (NDS) official in his native Kunar province.

Sarwary said he rose through the ranks, becoming deputy NDS chief for Kunar and later Deputy Director of Operations for Nangarhar.

Over the years, he worked closely with US military and intelligence units in eastern Afghanistan and was known to American officers for his “reliability” and “operational effectiveness”.

U.S. data indicates that around 76,000 Afghans were brought to the country under “Operation Allies Welcome”, with officials maintaining they were screened through multiple databases and security layers.

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