Cairo: Saudi Arabia’s top Islamic body Saturday condemned a deadly shooting blamed on a Saudi national at a US naval base as a “heinous crime”.
On Friday, a Saudi airman on an aviation training programme in the US, opened fire at the base in Florida, killing three people, before he was killed.
“The attack is a criminal act and shedding of safeguarded blood,” the Saudi Senior Scholars Council said in a statement.
“Islam venerates human blood, and prohibits bloodshed and intimidation of the innocent or harming them,” the council added, according to the official Saudi news agency SPA.
Late Friday, Saudi King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz spoke to US President Donald Trump and offered condolences.
The Saudi monarch pledged complete cooperation from the kingdom with US security agencies to unravel the circumstances of the attack, according to media reports.
The family of the suspect, identified as Mohammad Al Shamrani, denounced the act.
“By doing this, my nephew only represented himself and did not reflect his family’s humanitarian sense and loyalty to the Saudi leadership and the kingdom,” the suspect’s uncle Sa’ad Al Shamrani said, according to Saudi newspaper Okaz.
“The news [of the shooting] fell on us like a thunderbolt because all members of our tribe have served the state with all devotion, and always emphasise co-existence and rejection of radical thought,” he added.
