SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
The Afghan man accused of shooting two National Guard soldiers in Washington, D.C., is part of a community of former soldiers, allies of the United States who have struggled in the U.S. since fleeing the Taliban. Rahmanullah Lakanwal fought for years in so-called Zero Units led by the CIA. Many Zero Unit fighters now feel they're being abandoned by the CIA, and they're often facing despair and isolation. Some have taken their own lives. NPR's Brian Mann has our reporting. And we will note that the story does discuss suicide.
BRIAN MANN, BYLINE: When a former Afghan soldier named Davud (ph), who lived in Kabul, first signed up for a CIA-led Zero Unit, he says he was carefully vetted.
DAVUD: You needed somebody to recommend you in the unit. And after two, three months, you know, background check and vetting process, you would get a call.
MANN: Davud agreed to talk to NPR only if we identified him by his first name. He fears for the safety of his family still living under Taliban rule in Afghanistan. He says his service with the CIA led to years of fighting against some of the Taliban's toughest units. Groups like Human Rights Watch have accused Zero Unit soldiers of brutal tactics, including torture and illegal killing.
DAVUD: People think we were a death squad, we were an execution squad. No. We were out there, going out there because we needed to bring these folks alive. If you bring a target alive, you get more information from him.
MANN: According to Davud, those missions led him to believe he was part of a brotherhood with the U.S. military. He describes one firefight where an American CIA agent saved his life.
DAVUD: He said, grenade, and he grabbed me from my, you know, body armor, pulled me back. It was a crazy fight. A bullet went through my body armor, but, you know, I was fine.
MANN: This was the kind of American-led Afghan unit that also employed Lakanwal, who pleaded not guilty last week to murder and other charges in the National Guard shooting. Geeta Bakshi, a former CIA agent who served in Afghanistan, say Zero Unit fighters like Davud and Lakanwal were essential to America's war effort.
GEETA BAKSHI: These guys were the tip of the spear. They were out on the front so that American personnel didn't have to be. They were the ones that were facing the maximum danger on the battlefield and taking the maximum risk due to their affiliation with U.S. intelligence.
MANN: After the Taliban swept to power in 2021, the Biden administration evacuated thousands of Zero Unit fighters, offering them a chance to start new lives in the U.S. But NPR has learned that many of these soldiers found themselves mired in America's complex immigration system. Despite vetting and background checks by the CIA, Davud says he and many other soldiers struggled for years to gain permanent asylum and necessary work visas.
DAVUD: We asked the agency, could you please share our information so that when we submit our forms for our green cards they know who we are, we are vetted, we work with you guys? They said, oh, no, we can't share this. It's classified. And I was like, then how would they know, like, who we are?
MANN: NPR reported last week that Lakanwal, too, struggled with his immigration status. He only received asylum protection from the Trump administration in April of this year, nearly four years after coming to the U.S. A refugee resettlement volunteer who worked with Lakanwal shared emails with NPR written in 2024 indicating that Lakanwal appeared to suffer a personal crisis after failing to find stable employment. The volunteer spoke to NPR on condition of anonymity because they feared for their safety after working to support Lakanwal and other Afghan refugees. Davud says this kind of emotional distress became widespread among former soldiers.
DAVUD: We had worse cases than Lakanwal.
MANN: Davud says he knows of at least four former Zero Unit fighters who became so desperate and hopeless they took their own lives. He described one crisis involving a friend who ultimately survived.
DAVUD: He was in a very stressful situation. He was like, I'm going to go kill myself. That's how bad it was. And I was very worried for him.
MANN: Bakshi, the former CIA agent, now runs an organization called Famil USA that advocates for Zero Unit soldiers. She says her group tried to warn the Biden administration as early as 2023 of this growing problem.
BAKSHI: Individuals from the Zero Units unfortunately suffer death by self-harm. We raised this issue to the Biden administration, and it was one that we were very concerned about. Again, we saw a direct connection to prolonged immigration delays.
MANN: NPR sent detailed questions to the CIA and to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, but they declined to comment on the record. But Bakshi and Davud aren't alone in raising concerns about the welfare of former Afghan special forces soldiers now living in the U.S. Thomas Kasza served with the Green Berets in Kabul, alongside Afghan soldiers who specialized in clearing land mines and IEDs.
THOMAS KASZA: In the span that Americans would do one deployment, these guys are doing three, four, five, right? So you have to kind of be cognizant of the impact that's going to take.
MANN: Kasza says despite the Lakanwal case, he doesn't think former Afghan soldiers pose a security risk in the U.S. But he thinks many Afghan soldiers are struggling with trauma, compounded by their uncertain asylum status.
KASZA: The Afghans were providing the exact same services - even more, right? But no one's really thanking them for the service. And with that service also goes with kind of the side effects that are incumbent upon this profession - you know, all the PTSD - and that was - that has never been something provided for the Afghan population.
MANN: Uncertainty for Afghan soldiers has only grown since the D.C. attack. President Trump says Afghans brought to the U.S. by the Biden administration may be dangerous. He's frozen asylum claims and officials are reevaluating the legal status of Afghan refugees.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: This heinous atrocity reminds us that we have no greater national security priority than ensuring that we have full control over the people that enter and remain in our country. For the most part, we don't want them.
MANN: In a statement, CIA director John Ratcliffe also suggested America's Zero Unit allies may now be unwelcome. This individual and so many others should have never been allowed to come here, Ratcliffe said. Davud, the Afghan who fought alongside CIA agents, said those comments sent waves of fear through his community.
DAVUD: I was very shocked with the head of the CIA's comment. I felt so betrayed.
MANN: Davud says despite years of frustration, he and many of his fellow Afghan fighters now view the U.S. as their home and their only safe refuge.
DAVUD: We're part of this nation at this time. You don't want to send these folks back to Afghanistan. You're sentencing them to death.
MANN: Some U.S. veteran groups that fought with Afghan allies are now scrambling to convince the Trump administration to soften its stance on refugees who served with American military and intelligence services. But so far, Trump has maintained his fierce rhetoric. In a speech last night in Philadelphia, he objected again to taking in asylum-seekers from what he described as hellholes like Afghanistan.
Brian Mann, NPR News.
DETROW: And if you or someone you know may be considering suicide or in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
