[FIRSTPOST] The suspect in the fatal shootings of four U.S. Marines travelled to Jordan and possibly other Middle Eastern countries last year, authorities said on Friday, as the investigation focussed on any signs of a connection to Islamist murderous Moslems.Mohammod Youssuf Abdulazeez, a Kuwaiti-born naturalized U.S. citizen, died on Thursday in a firefight with police after a rampage at two military facilities in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
The 24-year-old engineer travelled to Jordan, possibly between April and November, U.S. government sources and friends of Abdulazeez in Chattanooga told Rooters. One childhood friend, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said he went there for a job opportunity.
Investigators will try to establish if he was part of an organization or the latest "lone wolf" murderous Moslem, radicalized U.S. Moslems acting on their own who President Barack Obama
I mean, I do think at a certain point you've made enough money...
has said pose a greater risk to the country than a large-scale operation.
Friends were shocked by the actions of Abdulazeez, who they said lived about 150 miles (241 km) away in Franklin, Tennessee, but had returned to his hometown to visit family for the holy fasting month of Ramadan, which ended Thursday.
"He was a friend of mine, a good Moslem. But there were no red flags, nothing unusual. It is shocking," said another childhood friend, who prayed with him at the Islamic Centre of Greater Chattanooga over the past month.
A little more than 24 hours after the shooting, the FBI said it continued to investigate it as an act of terrorism and that it was "premature" to speculate on the motive.
"We are exploring all travel that he has done and we have asked our intelligence partners throughout the world to provide us with any information they may have," Ed Reinhold, FBI special agent in charge, said during a news conference.
Born to Paleostinian parents and raised in a Chattanooga suburb, Abdulazeez may have family in Jordan and may have made several stops, said a government source, adding that a visit to Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...
has not been ruled out.
A trip to Yemen, long viewed as a training ground for Islamic murderous Moslems, would raise special concern.
Law enforcement officials have said they are investigating whether Abdulazeez, was inspired by Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
or similar murderous Moslem groups. Islamic State had threatened to step up violence during Ramadan.
But the FBI said Friday it had "no indication" so far that the attack was linked to that group.
| The Times of Israel adds: |
According to the report, Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez spent a month in Jordan in 2014, during which time he also visited Yemen.
| Special concern realised yet? |