It’s a chilling case that may represent far more than just a tragic and violent outburst — it could be the first visible crack in a growing national security threat born directly from the failed withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the man accused of shooting two National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., — killing one and critically injuring the other — is now the subject of an intense federal investigation. According to sources cited by The Daily Beast, U.S. intelligence officials are seriously pursuing a disturbing lead: that Lakanwal was coerced into the attack by a Taliban hit squad threatening to murder his family.
Lakanwal wasn’t just any refugee. He had been thoroughly vetted by both the Trump and Biden administrations, held no criminal record, and had no prior extremist ties. In fact, he served directly alongside U.S. forces in Afghanistan as part of the Afghan Scorpion Forces — an elite unit that worked with the CIA and was instrumental in helping American personnel evacuate during the chaotic fall of Kabul in August 2021. By all accounts, he was a loyal ally.
Now, federal investigators are asking why a man with no apparent motive, no history of violence, and everything to lose would drive across the country with a revolver to target armed U.S. military members in what looks like a suicide mission. The most plausible — and alarming — explanation? He was given an ultimatum: carry out the attack, or your family dies.
Lakanwal was NOT a member of the Afghan National Army. He was a member of the intel agency (NDS) which was mentored by the CIA & British intel with help from several Scandinavian intel agencies. His unit was accused of human rights violations, torture and extrajudicial killings. pic.twitter.com/wf0A3ExCg0
— Mustafa מוסטפא 🇺🇸 مصطفی Μασταφα (@CombatJourno) November 27, 2025
The Taliban’s Yarmouk 60 unit has reportedly devoted itself to tracking and executing Afghans who aided the West. One source detailed a horrifying incident in which a former Afghan special forces member, after fleeing to Germany, lost his wife, father, and four children — two of whom were beheaded — as punishment for his cooperation with NATO forces. That same level of brutality, officials believe, may now be used as leverage over former Afghan allies now living in the U.S.
If proven true, this case highlights an urgent and deeply complex threat: coercion by proxy. Even if Afghan immigrants are loyal, law-abiding residents with no links to terror, the Taliban has a direct line of influence — their families still trapped behind enemy lines. That kind of leverage can’t be screened for during vetting. It can’t be flagged by background checks. And it could be enough to turn a hero into an unwilling weapon.
This possibility should rattle policymakers — especially in light of reports that more than 5,000 Afghans admitted under the Biden administration were flagged as potential national security concerns. That number becomes more troubling if even non-radicalized individuals can be forced into action under the threat of horrific consequences for loved ones back home.
More than two years after the disastrous U.S. withdrawal handed Afghanistan back to the Taliban, the consequences continue to metastasize. From the abandonment of our allies to the rise of proxy threats on American soil, the full cost of that failure is only beginning to surface.
The Biden administration insisted that the withdrawal was a necessary step forward. But if this case confirms that the Taliban can now manipulate former allies living in the U.S. through fear and violence, then that step forward may have created a new front — one much closer to home.
