Saudi Arabia is ready to assist the authorities of the United States of America in investigating the shooting incident, which was arranged by a citizen of the kingdom at the Pensacola Air Force Base in Florida. This was in a telephone conversation with the head of the White House, Donald Trump, said King of Saudi Arabia Salman bin Abdel-Aziz Al Saud.

He expressed his condolences to the families of the victims and wished a speedy recovery to the victims. According to him, the perpetrator of this “heinous crime” does not represent the Saudi people, for whom the Americans are friends and allies.

"His Majesty instructed the security services of Saudi Arabia to cooperate with the relevant US departments to identify information that will help determine the cause of the terrible attack," the Kingdom Embassy said in a statement.

Donald Trump himself also spoke about the telephone conversation with the Saudi king. The head of the White House said that, according to the king, the Saudi people are “very angry with the barbaric actions of the shooter.”

The General Secretariat of the Council of Senior Theologians of Saudi Arabia called the "shooting at a military base in Florida" a "heinous crime against the inviolability of human life." Their statement says that "in Islam, such bloodshed and acts of intimidation of innocent people are considered illegal."

In turn, the Deputy Minister of Defense of Saudi Arabia, Prince Khaled bin Salman, noted that he himself, like many other soldiers of the kingdom, was trained at this military base. According to him, the knowledge gained in the USA was used in the fight against terrorism and against other threats. The tragic event is condemned by everyone in Saudi Arabia, he added.

  • View of the US Navy base Pensacola in Florida
  • Reuters
  • © US Navy / Patrick Nichols

Note that the former governor, and now Senator from the state of Florida, Rick Scott, after the incident, advocated revising the training program for foreign troops in the United States. In his opinion, what happened should be regarded as a terrorist act, regardless of the shooter's motives.

“I am very concerned that the shooter at Pensacola was a foreigner trained at a base in the United States. Today I am calling for a complete revision of the military training programs for foreign citizens in America. We should not provide military training to those seeking to harm us, ”he wrote on Twitter.

In turn, the current governor of Florida, Ron Desantis, emphasized that "December 6, 2019 was a grim day for this wonderful place." According to him, many questions arise in connection with the fact that the attacker was a foreign citizen who was undergoing military training in the United States. He also called on Riyadh to compensate for the damage caused to the victims of the tragedy, since their subject turned out to be a criminal.

On the morning of Friday, December 6, at about 06:30 local time (14:30 Moscow time), a Saudi Arabian Air Force soldier, who was trained at the US Navy Pensacola, fired at the building of the military training base. As a result of his attack, three people were killed, eight more were injured. The attacker was eliminated by the assistants of the Sheriff of Escambia County, where the air base is located.

Note that, unofficially, the base in Pensacola is considered the "cradle of the naval aviation" of the United States, because it trained officers of the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard. About 16 thousand military men serve here, about 7.4 thousand civilians work on its territory.

According to American media reports, the criminal turned out to be Saudi Arabian Air Force junior lieutenant Mohammed Said Alshamrani. He used the Glock 45 pistol to attack. According to information from the SITE Intelligence Group portal, which monitors the activities of terrorists on the Internet, shortly before the incident, a user whose name matches the name of the shooter published a post on Twitter criticizing the support of Israel from the United States, and The United States is called the "nation of evil." Meanwhile, the authenticity of the account has not yet been verified by the authorities.

  • AFP
  • © Josh Brasted / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA

In addition, Fox News, citing a United States official, reported the detention of six Saudi citizens after the shooting incident near the Pensacola air force base. They were taken into custody for interrogation.

Earlier this week, December 4, a similar attack with a firearm occurred at the Pearl Harbor Naval Base, the Hikam of the US Armed Forces, located in the state of Hawaii near Honolulu. There, the shooter killed two, after which he committed suicide. The circumstances of the incident are being clarified.