Al-Rimi is a founder of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Al-Rimi had said in an 18-minute video that his group was responsible for the Dec. 6 shooting at the base. Al-Rimi called the shooter, Royal Saudi Air Force second lieutenant Mohammed Alshamrani, a “courageous knight” and a “hero.”The shooter opened fire inside a classroom at the base, killing three people and wounding two sheriff’s deputies before one of the deputies killed him. The shooting focused public attention on the presence of foreign students in US military training programs and exposed shortcomings in the screening of cadets. The US last month sent home 21 Saudi Arabian military students, saying that the trainees had posted jihadist or anti-US sentiments on social media pages or had “contact with child pornography,” including in Internet chat rooms.
