Top-Secret File: CIA-Trained Operative Identified in D.C. Shooting

A leaked identification photo has ignited a firestorm across social media, revealing a chilling detail: the suspect in a recent shooting targeting members of the U.S. National Guard once belonged to “Unit 03” — also known as the Kandahar Strike Force, one of the most secretive and controversial Zero Units of the Afghan war. Shortly after the image spread online, a former senior Afghan military official confirmed to CBS News that the ID card was genuine, silencing speculation that it was merely a photoshopped clickbait.

The central figure in this case, Rahmanullah Lakanwal — until recently an unknown name — has suddenly become the focus of a federal investigation, dragging with him a flood of unsettling questions about the hidden scars of war, clandestine intelligence networks, and psychological wounds that never fully heal. According to a U.S. official closely following the investigation and a senior officer of the former Afghan National Defense and Security Forces, Lakanwal once served in a Zero Unit — an Afghan-only paramilitary and intelligence group trained and equipped directly by the CIA throughout the bloodiest years of the war. These were not units familiar to ordinary Afghans. They operated in the shadows, publicly labeled “Special Partners,” but privately tied to numerous allegations of brutality.

Zero Units fell under Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security (NDS), the CIA-backed intelligence agency that served as the backbone of the U.S.-supported Afghan government prior to its collapse in 2021. To Washington, they were loyal, highly reliable local forces willing to take on missions others avoided — no matter the political or moral costs. But to many Afghans, they were feared “death squads,” known for midnight raids, unexplained disappearances, and whispered rumors that circulated through war-torn villages.

What makes the case even more disturbing is that Lakanwal, according to officials, had been deeply traumatized by casualties within his unit — especially the recent death of a close friend. After the shooting that shocked the U.S. National Guard, many began to wonder: Was this tragedy the result of an unhealed past forged in darkness? Or is something deeper, more dangerous, unfolding beneath the surface?