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