Key US Lawmakers Call For Halt To Saudi Military Training In US After Attack

Key lawmakers called Sunday for a halt to a Saudi military training programme in the Unites States. This comes days after a member of the Saudi Air Force training to be a pilot opened fire in a classroom building at a US naval Station with a handgun, killing three people and injuring eight others. US Defence Secretary Mark Esper said he has ordered a review of vetting procedures while defending the training programme.

Alshamrani, a 21-year-old second lieutenant in the Saudi Royal Air Force was reported to have posted a manifesto on Twitter before the shooting denouncing America as “a nation of evil.”

Key lawmakers called Sunday for a halt to a Saudi military training programme after a shooting rampage at a US naval base in which a Saudi officer killed three American sailors.

US Defence Secretary Mark Esper said he has ordered a review of vetting procedures while defending the training programme that brought Mohammed Alshamrani to Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida.

Saudi King had expressed his condolences to Donald Trump immediately after the attack. "King Salman of Saudi Arabia just called to express his sincere condolences and give his sympathies to the families and friends of the warriors who were killed and wounded in the attack that took place in Pensacola, Florida," Trump said in a tweet.

"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 in his tweet.

Prince Khalid bin Salman, the king’s younger son and the deputy defence minister, offered his “sincerest condolences" to the victims' families.

"I was trained in a US military base, and we used that valuable training to fight side by side with our American allies against terrorism and other threats," Prince Khalid added on Twitter.

Saudi Arabia remains one of the closest US allies in the Middle East, and US President Donald Trump has cultivated its controversial de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.