US Defense Secretary Mark Esber announced that it was too early to consider the attack by a Saudi in Florida a "terrorist" operation, and the New York Times revealed that there was no link between the attacker and international terrorist groups.
"I cannot say at this stage that it is terrorism," Esber told the Reagan National Defense Forum in California on Saturday night. He added that he believed investigators should be allowed to do their work.
Esber added that he asked his ministry officials for additional procedures to scrutinize foreigners enrolled in military training in his country.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Jacksonville, Florida, declared that the investigation was "active and still going on".
The New York Times reported that the assessment of officials of the extremism and intelligence services concluded that the Saudi trainee, Mohammed al-Shamrani, who carried out the attack, was "an individual extremist."
The newspaper revealed that Al-Shamrani entered the United States in 2018 to train in flight and left for Saudi Arabia to return in February, when he did not join the training program until two days before the attack that occurred on Friday, and it was not clear what he was doing during the time between his return and his enrollment in training. .
Media reported that a Twitter account believed to belong to al-Shamrani had posted a message hours before the attack criticizing the United States for its support of Israel and "financing crimes against Muslims."
The US Navy made it clear on Friday that a Saudi aviation trainer opened fire inside the Pensacola base, and that he was killed in the attack after killing three and wounding others.