Shooting at US Naval Base in December was terrorism - US Attorney General - UPDATED

Shooting at US Naval Base in December was terrorism - US Attorney General - UPDATED
# 14 January 2020 01:15 (UTC +04:00)

US Attorney General William Barr told members of the press at the Department of Justice Monday that the December shooting at Pensacola Naval Air Station last month was "an act of terrorism."

Barr said that 2nd Lt. Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, a member of the Royal Saudi Air Force, "was motivated by jihadist ideology" when he killed three US sailors and severely wounded eight other Americans in the December 6, 2019, shooting at NAS Pensacola in Florida.

The DOJ chief also noted that in the investigation that followed, 21 members of the Saudi military at the base were found to have "derogatory material" ranging from "social media containing some jihadi or anti-American content" to "some kind of contact with child pornography."

"The relevant US Attorneys offices independently reviewed each of the 21 cases involving derogatory information and determined that none of them would, in the normal course, result in federal prosecution," Barr told reporters at the DOJ. "However, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia determined that this material demonstrated conduct unbecoming an officer in the Saudi Royal Air Force and Royal Navy and the 21 cadets have been dis-enrolled from their training curriculum in the US military and will be returning to Saudi Arabia (later today)," APA reports quoting sputniknews.

Two days after the shooting, the FBI said it was carrying out its investigation "with the presumption that this was an act of terrorism," Sputnik reported. A US official later saidAlshamrani had organized a watch party with three other Saudi students prior to the shooting, in which they binge-watched mass shooting videos.

Barr further noted the US military should improve its vetting process for foreign trainees.

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