WASHINGTON – The Afghan man accused of shooting two National Guard soldiers blocks from the White House last week served with CIA-backed "zero units" in Afghanistan, paramilitary groups that carried out secret raids against suspected terrorists and U.S. enemies as part of the CIA's counterterrorism program.

Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the 29-year-old who allegedly shot the two West Virginia National Guardsmen in front of a Metro station in downtown Washington, served in the elite tactical units, according to Sami Sadat, the former commanding general of the Afghan Army's Special Operations Corps. The group worked with U.S. forces on counterterrorism operations before the Taliban takeover.

A motive in the shooting has not been revealed, but reports that he served in the ultrasecret, violent units that critics compared with "death squads" for their human rights abuses have spurred questions of whether his experiences left him with post-traumatic stress disorder.

In the wake of the shooting, the Trump administration pointed the finger at Biden-era immigration policies and refugee programs that have brought thousands of Afghans who served with the U.S. military into the country after the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Lakanwal entered the country that year through one such program, Operation Allies Welcome, which brought nearly 200,000 Afghans into the country.

Lakanwal served with elite, US-backed teams

Sadat said Lakanwal was among thousands of Afghans who served in the elite, tactical units. The unit he served with was called NDS (National Directorate of Security) 03, or the Kandahar Strike Group, according to Sadat.

Sadat now chairs the Afghanistan United Front, a movement opposing the Taliban.

The Kandahar Strike Force operated out of Camp Gecko, a U.S. base in the former compound of Taliban founder Mullah Omar, according to reports.

The CIA confirmed that Lakanwal served under it in Afghanistan, but declined to comment on what role he played or reports of the units' human rights abuses.

When the Taliban took over after the end of the 20-year U.S. occupation of Afghanistan, the United States welcomed Afghans who had fought alongside Americans as they feared reprisals from the new regime.

"In the wake of the disastrous Biden Withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Biden Administration justified bringing the alleged shooter to the United States in September 2021 due to his prior work with the U.S. Government, including CIA, as a member of a partner force in Kandahar, which ended shortly following the chaotic evacuation," CIA director John Ratcliffe said in a statement.

Sadat and others familiar with the units described them as elite, specialized squads engaged in secret counterterrorism operations that ran parallel to – but compartmentalized from – the U.S. military's main larger mission in Afghanistan.

The first zero units were formed months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. At their height in late 2010 and 2011, an average of 19 raids were carried out nightly in Afghanistan, according to an Open Society Foundation report.

Guided by CIA intelligence and accompanied by U.S. special operations personnel, the zero units conducted tactical "night raids" against suspected terrorists and Taliban militants.

“These units were very highly trained and did some of the most heavy fighting throughout the war,” Mick Mulroy, a former CIA Paramilitary Operations officer and former deputy assistant secretary of defense, told USA TODAY.

“A whole generation of CIA and military officers served alongside them, embedded with them, and many owe their life to members of this unit," Mulroy added. “They were the first to be stood up and the last to leave Afghanistan.”

Sadat said the units were among the most effective in combatting the Taliban on the ground. The majority came to the United States after the 2021 withdrawal, since they faced extreme danger of being hunted down and killed by the Taliban, who hold a special hatred for the zero units, Sadat said.

Shawn VanDiver, the president of AfghanEvac, an organization that helps bring Afghan allies to the United States, said Lakanwal first started serving in a Zero Unit when he was 15 years old. Lakanwal was likely "exposed to all sorts of trauma" in that position, he said.

Afghans who served in zero units have undergone among "the most extensive" checks of any foreigners hoping to enter the United States, Mulroy said. It includes employment verification with the U.S. government, approval from the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan, eight different database checks, biometric registration and multiple ”extensive" in person interviews, he said.

The CIA handed the Zero Units intelligence to conduct a raid, usually during the nighttime, Sadat said. Sometimes, the CIA would also lend air support or fly drones to back up their raids, he said. They primarily operated in the countryside, he added.

But the units' disregard for the rules of engagement and pattern of being "heavy handed with civilians" gave them a "blackened" reputation, Sadat said.

That sowed bitter tension with the Afghan government, which pressed for years, without success, to wrest control of the units from the CIA, he said.

"It was like a blame game. The damage was terrible and it made the Afghan government look like" it was not in charge, he added.

Zero units killed hundreds of civilians, reports say

Human rights organizations and news outlets have collected evidence of hundreds of civilian casualties and possible war crimes linked to the Zero Units. At least 452 civilians were killed in 107 raids, but that number is likely a significant undercount, a 2022 Pro Publica report found.

A 2019 Human Rights Watch report documented numerous cases of "summary execution" and "enforced disappearances" carried out by the CIA-backed units. Those killed in the raids included children, elderly women, teachers and construction workers. According to the report, the units often operated from faulty intelligence that came from people with biased motivations or deemed people guilty "by association."

Patricia Gossman, associate Asia director at Human Rights Watch and the report's author, said local communities lived in fear of the seemingly arbitrary raids. She recalled cases of people dragged out of their homes, shot in the eyes and mouth. Bodies were sometimes left in the open to leave a fearful message, she said. In one instance, a unit stormed a medical clinic, shot two medical workers, then dragged out a doctor, who was never seen again, she said.

"You never knew when it might happen. You never knew when they might shoot. It inspired fear in the population," Gossman said.

Gossman said people complained to local officials, but investigations were stonewalled and shut down. People were left with no answers, and the United States never took accountability for the "dangerous culture of impunity that accompanied these operations," she added.

"It’s the utter lack of transparency that is most concerning," she said. "There was no sense that there needed to be accountability for those actions."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: National Guard shooting suspect served in bloody, CIA-led 'zero units'

Reporting by Cybele Mayes-Osterman and Josh Meyer, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect