The Saudi military student who killed four people at a US naval base on Friday assailed America as a "nation of evil" prior to the attack, the SITE Intelligence Group said.
SITE, which monitors jihadist media, identified the shooter 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.
A Saudi Air Force second lieutenant killed four people and wounded eight others on Friday in an unexplained shooting rampage at a US Navy base in Florida where he was training, US officials told Reuters. Eight people were taken to Baptist Hospital for treatment, hospital spokeswoman Kathy Bowers said.
Sheriff's deputies responding to the early-morning incident shot and killed the gunman, who was armed with a handgun at the US Naval Station in Pensacola, Navy and local law enforcement officials said.The shooting, which played out over two floors in a classroom building at the base, marked the second deadly shooting at a US military installation this week, following a similar incident at the joint Air Force and Naval base at Pearl Harbor on Wednesday.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said the suspect was a Saudi national attending training at the base as part of long-standing Navy program open to US allies. "The government of Saudi Arabia needs to make things better for these victims. They are going to owe a debt here, given that this was one of their individuals," DeSantis said at a news conference. US President Donald Trump said Saudi Arabia's King Salman called him to offer condolences and sympathy to the victims."
US officials familiar with the case told Reuters on condition of anonymity that the suspect had been identified as Saudi Second Lieutenant Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's King Salman told President Donald Trump on Friday he has directed his security services to cooperate with US 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, "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 Saudi embassy in Washington said in a statement.
Fifteen of the 19 men involved in the 11 September 2001 attacks were Saudi nationals, some of whom attended flight school in Florida.
(With input from agencies)
