The Taliban government said Wednesday that the shooting of two National Guard members, one fatally, by an Afghan suspect in Washington last month had nothing to do with Afghanistan.
“The person who committed this act was trained by the Americans themselves,” foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said in a video published by his office, the first official Taliban reaction to the shooting.
“So this incident does not concern the Afghan government or people,” he said.
The suspected gunman, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to the November 26 shootings.
According to US officials, Lakanwal had been part of a CIA-backed “partner force” fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan.
He came to the United States as part of a resettlement program following the American military withdrawal from the country in 2021.
“They trained this man, employed him, and he left Afghanistan through an illegal process that did not match international norms,” Muttaqi said.
