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Day 2: Saudi king orders security services to cooperate with U.S. in probe of Florida shooting, six Saudis arrested near base, manifesto posted on Twitter
Yesterday’s events can be seen here.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia’s King Salman told U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday he has directed his security services to cooperate with U.S. authorities investigating the deadly shooting at a Florida military base and assured him the "perpetrator of this heinous crime" does not represent the Saudi people.

King Salman expressed "his sorrow and grief" over the shooting, the Saudi embassy in Washington said in a statement after a phone call between the two leaders.

"His Majesty affirmed that the perpetrator of this heinous crime does not represent the Saudi people, who count the American people as friends and allies," the statement said. The king "directed Saudi security services to cooperate with the relevant American agencies to uncover information that will help determine the cause of this horrific attack."

Six Saudis are arrested over Pensacola naval base shooting including three who FILMED the attack by countryman who killed three and wounded eight before being shot dead - as FBI probes terror link

[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
  • Shooting took place on base early Friday morning, sparking a lockdown

  • Sources identified the suspected gunman as Saudi Air Force aviation student Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, who was armed with a hand gun

  • As of Friday evening, six Saudi nationals were detained near the base for questioning

  • It's reported that three of them filmed the shooting as it happened

  • Rep Matt Gaetz, a Republican representing Pensacola, called the shooting 'an act of terrorism'

  • President Trump tweeted that King Salman told him 'the Saudi people are greatly angered by the barbaric actions of the shooter...'

  • Three other people were shot and killed during incident inside classroom building on base
The Saudi Air Force trainee who killed three and injured eight when he opened fire at a naval base in Florida on Friday assailed the United States as 'a nation of evil' just before his shooting rampage, AFP reports.

The man, identified as Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, opened fire inside a classroom at Naval Air Station in Pensacola early Friday morning. Police quickly responded to the scene and he was shot dead.

Alshamrani was a second lieutenant attending the aviation school at the base. The Pentagon say his training with the US military began in August 2016, and was due to finish in August 2020.

On Friday evening, the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist media, claimed they had tracked a Twitter account belonging to Alshamrani which featured a disturbing tweet written just hours before the shooting.

'I'm against evil, and America as a whole has turned into a nation of evil,' the tweet read.

'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,' Alshamrani wrote.

ABC News reported that investigators were working to determine if if the tweet 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, the Saudi Osama bin Laden - has now been suspended.

In recent weeks, 18 naval aviators and two aircrew members from the Royal Saudi Naval Forces were training with the US Navy, including at Pensacola, according to a November 15 press release from the Navy. It was not clear if the suspected shooter was part of that delegation.

The delegation came under a Navy program that offers training to US allies, known as the Naval Education and Training Security Assistance Field Activity.

A person familiar with the program said that Saudi Air Force officers selected for military training in the United States are intensely vetted by both countries.
Posted by: Besoeker 2019-12-07
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=557765