Attack at US Navy base ‘terrorism related’

Ashooting at a US Navy base in Corpus Christi, Texas, that wounded a sailor on Thursday was “terrorism related”, a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) spokeswoman said, adding that the gunman was dead at the scene but investigators were searching for a potential second suspect.

The shooter opened fire at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi around 6.15am CDT (1115 GMT), the Navy Office of Information said in a written statement.

“We have determined that the incident this morning at the Naval Air Station Corpus Christi is terrorism related,” FBI agent Leah Greeves said. “We are working diligently with our state, local and federal partners on this investigation, which is fluid and evolving.”

She said the gunman had been slain at the scene of the shooting, which was still being processed by authorities.

A lockdown of the base had been lifted.

“We may have a potential second related person of interest at large in the community, but would encourage the public to remain calm. If you see something, say something,” she said.

The New York Times quoted a base spokeswoman as saying that a man in a vehicle approached a gate to the installation and began firing at a guard, who was injured but managed to activate a “final denial barrier” that prevents entry.

Base personnel returned fire, and the gunman was “neutralised”, she told the Times.

In a separate statement, the US Department of Justice said it was working with the FBI along with state and local agencies in the investigation and would analyse “electronic media found at the scene”.

The Justice Department did not elaborate on the nature of that electronic media.

The sailor who was wounded in the attack, a member of the base security force, was in good condition and had been released from a hospital, the Navy said.

The suspect was identified yesterday as 20-year-old Adam Aalim Alsahli, a Syrian-born US citizen.

The suspect’s name and age were confirmed to Reuters in an e-mail from an FBI official, and tweeted by the agency.

No further official information about the suspect was released.

A US law enforcement official familiar with the investigation said Alsahli was a native of Syria who held US citizenship.

Late last year, a Saudi gunman killed three US sailors in an attack at the Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida, just days after a US sailor shot three civilians at the historic Pearl Harbour military base in Hawaii, killing two of them before taking his own life.