FBI identifies a second lieutenant in Saudi Air Force as US Navy base shooter

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has identified the assailant that killed three people at a naval air station in Pensacola, Florida, as 21-year-old Mohammed Alshamr who was a second lieutenant in the Royal Saudi Air Force.

In a statement, the orgsation described Alshamr, who was shot dead by the police at the site of the incident, as a "2nd LT in the Royal Saudi Air Force who was a student naval flight officer of Naval Aviation Schools Command," reported the Hill.

Saudis have received training at the Pensacola site since the 1970s. As of Friday, there were 852 Saudis in the US for Pentagon-sponsored training related to security cooperation, representing 16 per cent of the 5,181 students from 153 countries in these programs, Defense Department spokesman Chris Garver said, as cited by Washington Post.

The Saudi Foreign Ministry has expressed "its deep distress" following the shooting and offered "its sincere condolences to the victims' families".

President Donald Trump also said that he spoke to King Salman of Saudi Arabia after the incident during which the monarch expressed "his sincere condolences and give his sympathies to the families and friends of the warriors who were killed and wounded."

"The King said that the Saudi people are greatly angered by the barbaric actions of the shooter and that this person in no way shape or form represents the feelings of the Saudi people who love the American people," Trump said.

( With inputs from ANI )