Saudi military base shooter assailed US as 'nation of evil'

MIAMI - A Saudi military student reportedly condemned America as a "nation of evil" in an online manifesto prior to opening fire Friday at a US naval base, killing three people before being shot dead by police.

The shooting, which took place in a classroom building at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida, left eight others wounded, including two sheriff's deputies who responded to the attack.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said the shooter was from Saudi Arabia - the same nationality as 15 of the 19 men involved in the 9/11 attacks, some of whom attended civilian flight school in Florida.

The SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist media, identified him as Mohammed al-Shamrani, saying he had posted a short manifesto on Twitter that read: "I'm against evil, and America as a whole has turned into a nation of evil."

"I'm not against you for just being American, I don't hate you because your freedoms, I hate you because every day you supporting, funding and committing crimes not only against Muslims but also humanity," he wrote.

ABC News reported that investigators were working to determine if it was in fact written by the shooter.

The Twitter account that posted the manifesto - which also condemned US support for Israel and included a quote from Al-Qaeda's deceased leader, Osama bin Laden - has been suspended.

DeSantis told a news conference that "the government of Saudi Arabia needs to make things better for these victims. And I think they are going to owe a debt here given that this is one of their individuals."

Saudi citizens on social media strongly rejected that view and sought to distance their country from the gunman, with one Twitter user saying: "The government of Saudi Arabia is not responsible for every single individual with a Saudi passport."

Commanding officer Captain Timothy Kinsella said the shooter was an aviation trainee, one of "a couple hundred" foreign students at the base.

Six Saudis were detained following the shooting, including three who were seen filming the entire attack, The New York Times reported, citing a person briefed on the initial investigation.

The gunman was armed with a Glock 9mm handgun that had been purchased locally, the Times reported. It had an extended magazine and the shooter had four to six other magazines in his possession.

'Heinous'

Saudi Arabia's King Salman telephoned US President Donald Trump to denounce the shooting, affirming that "the perpetrator of this heinous crime does not represent the Saudi people," according to the official Saudi Press Agency.

Salman said his government's security services were working with US agencies to uncover the cause.

Saudi Arabia has long been a major US ally in the Middle East, thanks primarily to security considerations and oil.

Trump said King Salman "called to express his sincere condolences and give his sympathies to the families and friends of the warriors who were killed and wounded in the attack that took place in Pensacola, Florida."

"The King said that the Saudi people are greatly angered by the barbaric actions of the shooter," Trump wrote on Twitter.

Police were first called about the shooting shortly before 7:00 am (1200 GMT), Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan said.

"Walking through the crime scene was like being on the set of a movie," Morgan said. "You don't expect this to happen."

Only members of the security forces can bring weapons on base, Kinsella said, and it was not clear how the shooter got the gun onto the premises.

Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said he is "considering several steps to ensure the security of our military installations and the safety of our service members and their families," but did not provide details.

In recent weeks, 18 naval aviators and two aircrew members from the Royal Saudi Naval Forces were training with the US Navy at Pensacola, according to the Navy.

The group came under a Navy program that offers training to US allies. Some 200 foreign students are in the program, said Captain Timothy Kinsella, the commander of the base.

A person familiar with the program said Saudi Air Force officers selected for military training in the United States are intensely vetted by both countries.

The Saudi personnel are "hand-picked" by their military and often come from elite families.

Esper said he wanted to see whether US vetting of these foreign military personnel was adequate.

"I want to make sure that we're doing our due diligence to understand: What are our procedures? Is it sufficient?" Esper told reporters. "Are we also screening persons coming to make sure they have their life in order, their mental health is adequate."

Senator Rick Scott of Florida called for a full review of US military programs training foreign nationals on US soil.

"We shouldn't be providing military training to people who wish to harm us," Scott wrote on Twitter.

Allies versus extremists

The shooting marks a setback in Saudi Arabia's efforts to shrug off its longstanding reputation for promoting religious extremism after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, in which 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis.

The hashtag "Saudis stand with America" gained traction on social media after King Salman telephoned President Donald Trump to denounce the shooting as "heinous" and pledge cooperation with American officials to investigate the incident.

The family of the shooter echoed the same sentiment. The pro-government Okaz newspaper quoted one of his uncles, Saad al-Shamrani, as saying that his actions do not reflect the "humanity and loyalty of his family" to the kingdom's leadership.

Prince Khalid bin Salman, the king's younger son and the deputy defence minister, offered his "sincerest condolences" to the families of the victims.

"Like many other Saudi military personnel, I was trained in a US military base, and we used that valuable training to fight side by side with our American allies against terrorism and other threats," Prince Khalid said on Twitter.

"A large number of Saudi graduates of the Naval Air Station in Pensacola moved on to serve with their US counterparts in battlefronts around the world, helping to safeguard the regional and global security. (The) tragic event is strongly condemned by everyone in Saudi Arabia."

The incident is unlikely to affect Washington's close relations with Riyadh, with both governments seeking military and diplomatic cooperation to counter Shiite power Iran.

Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has sought to project a moderate image of his austere kingdom, often associated in the West with jihadist ideology.

Prince Mohammed has promoted what observers call a de-emphasis on religion as he pursues a sweeping modernisation drive that has allowed mixed-gender music concerts and ended decades-long bans on cinemas and women drivers.

Saudi Arabia, which is home to Islam's holiest sites in Mecca and Medina and where the practice of other religions is banned, has hosted a flurry of representatives of various Christian traditions in recent months.

But the self-styled reformer has also faced global criticism for the kingdom's poor human rights record, including the jailing of multiple women activists, clerics and journalists.

American shootings

Just two days before Friday's attack in Pensacola, a US sailor fatally shot two people and wounded a third at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard in Hawaii before taking his own life.

"This has been a devastating week for our Navy family," Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Michael Gilday said. "When tragedy hits, as it did today, and Wednesday in Pearl Harbor, it is felt by all."

The Pensacola base, near Florida's border with Alabama, is a major training site for the Navy and employs about 16,000 military and 7,400 civilian personnel, according to its website. The base is home to a flight demonstration squadron and is an early training center for naval pilots, known as the "cradle of naval aviation."

The base is the center for the US Navy's foreign military training programs, established in 1985 specifically for Saudi students before being expanded to other nationalities.

While mass shootings in the United States are common, they are rare at military facilities. Military personnel are normally restricted from carrying weapons on US bases unless they are part of their daily duties. Nonetheless bases have seen deadly mass shootings before.

In July 2015, Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez carried attacked two military installations in Tennessee that killed four Marines and a sailor. The FBI concluded the violence was inspired by a "foreign terrorist group."

Two years earlier, Aaron Alexis killed 12 people and wounded eight at the Washington Navy Yard in the US capital, before being shot dead by officers.

Four years before that, Major Nidal Hasan, a US Army psychiatrist, killed 13 people and wounded more than 30 at Fort Hood in Texas. US authorities described him as a "lone wolf" who supported Al-Qaeda.

Supporters of tighter gun laws seized on the latest shooting.

"Our veterans and active-duty military put their lives on the line to protect us overseas -- they shouldn't have to be terrorized by gun violence at home," Cindy Martin, a volunteer with Moms Demand Action whose daughter works at the naval base, said in a statement.