Two US National Guard troops shot in an ambush attack just blocks from the White House

Two US National Guards who were deployed from West Virginia by US President Donald Trump to the nation’s capital were shot late on Wednesday just a few blocks from the White House, in what officials labelled a brazen act of violence.

FBI Director Kash Patel and Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser said the two soldiers are still receiving treatment and remain in critical condition. Authorities also added that a suspect has already been taken into custody.

The suspect, who has been living in Washington state, has been identified by law enforcement officials as 29-year-old Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal, but authorities were still working to fully confirm his background.

In a video message shared to his own social media platform, Truth Social, Trump denounced the attack, stressing that investigations are underway to seek justice for what he described as a horrific and targeted assault.

“As President of the United States, I am determined to ensure that the animal who perpetrated this atrocity pays the steepest possible price,” said Trump.

Trump shared that the perpetrator of the shooting was an Afghan migrant, who arrived in the US in September 2021, under former President Joe Biden’s administration.

“The Department of Homeland Security is confident that the suspect in custody is a foreigner who entered our country from Afghanistan, a hellhole on earth,” said Trump. “He was flown in by Biden administration in September 2021, on those infamous flights that everybody was talking about”.

Trump then slammed Biden’s administration for their immigration policy, which he says is now responsible for the “single greatest national security threat” facing the country.

“Nobody knew who was coming in, nobody knew anything about it. His status was extended under legislation signed by President Biden, a disastrous president, the worst in the history of our country.”

“20 million unknown and unvetted foreigners from all over the world, from countries that you don’t want to even know about,” Trump noted. “No country can tolerate such a risk to our very survival.”

Trump used the incident to push forward his controversial immigration agenda, which has involved widespread sweeps, mass detentions and deportations. He also called for the reinvestigation of all Afghan refugees and foreigners at large, who entered under the Biden administration.

“We must now re-examine every single alien who has entered our country from Afghanistan under Biden, and 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. America will never bend and never yield in the face of terror,” added the US president.

Trump announced that he has ordered the deployment of an additional 500 National Guard troops the capital city to beef-up security. Nearly 2,200 troops are currently assigned to the joint task force operating in Washington DC, according to the government’s latest update.

The shooting happened roughly two blocks northwest of the White House near a metro station. Hearing gunfire, other troops in the area ran over and held down the shooter after he was shot, said Jeffery Carroll, an Executive Assistant DC Police chief.

Videos shared to social media platforms in the immediate aftermath showed first responders performing CPR on one of the troops and treating the other on a glass-covered sidewalk.

There was initial confusion immediately after the shooting, after West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey took to X to announce that both soldiers were killed in the attack, a statement he later retracted citing “conflicting reports”.