|
#US grounds #Saudi pilots, halts #military training after base shooting
[TWITTER]
The decision will have far-reaching impacts on visiting Saudi personnel, including grounding more than 300 Saudi Arabian military aviation students as part of a “safety stand-down,” first reported by Reuters earlier on Tuesday. The Pentagon later confirmed the Reuters report about aviation students and added the move would also affect infantry personnel and all other Saudi training, other than classroom training. Such coursework, which includes English-language classes, will continue. A senior US defense official, briefing Pentagon reporters on the decision, said the move was intended to allow for a broader review of security procedures that would eventually apply to all of some 5,000 international military students in the United States. Still, the safety standdown only applied to the some 850 visiting students from Saudi Arabia. The defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the shooting “suggested that there could be a particular improvement with that (nation’s) population.” The FBI has said US investigators believe Saudi Air Force Second Lieutenant Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, 21, acted alone when he attacked a US Navy base in Pensacola, Florida, on Friday, before he was fatally shot by a deputy sheriff. Related: Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani: 2019-12-09 Manhunt for missing Saudis, hundreds of thousands of visa overstays Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani: 2019-12-09 Saudi Crown Prince phones Trump, expresses condolences over Pensacola shooting; was shooter radicalized on home visit? Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani: 2019-12-08 Pensacola Jihad Massacre Proves We've Learned Nothing Since the Fort Hood Attack Posted by: Fred 2019-12-11 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=558121 |