Base attacker had long ties to al-Qaeda

WASHINGTON: The Saudi military student who killed three Americans at a US naval base in December had longstanding ties to al-Qaeda and planned an attack before he arrived in the United States, US justice officials said Monday.

The Dec 6 attack by Mohammed Alshamrani, a Royal Saudi Air Force flight student at the Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida, “was actually the culmination of years of planning and preparation”, said FBI Director Christopher Wray.

Evidence discovered on an encrypted cell phone shows he was radicalised at least as far back as 2015, and has since been associating with “dangerous” operatives from the Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), Mr Wray added.

Mr Wray said the 21-year-old had expressed a desire to learn to fly years ago with plans for a “special operation”, enlisting in the Royal Saudi Air Force and joining flight training in the US.

“In the months before the attack, while he was here among us, he talked with AQAP about his plans and tactics — taking advantage of the information he acquired here, to assess how many people he could try to kill,” he said.

He was in touch with AQAP contacts the night before he launched the attack, Mr Wray added.

The Dec 6 shooting in a classroom building at the naval base left three US sailors dead and wounded eight other people, including two responding sheriff’s deputies, before Alshamrani was killed by police.

The incident forced the temporary freeze of all US training for foreign military officials.