Al Qa’ida Branch Claims Responsibility for Deadly Pensacola Shooting

Al Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has claimed “full responsibility” for the December 6, 2019 shooting at the Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida that resulted in the killing of three people and the wounding of ten others, including two sheriff’s deputies. On February 2, AQAP released a special video dedicated to the shooting. The production features AQAP’s emir, Qasim al-Raymi, who claims that the shooter, Mohammed Saeed al-Shamrani, was serving AQAP, though he doesn’t provide many details to bolster the claim. The video does include pictures from al-Shamrani’s life in the military, as well as images of his will, which is dated three months to the day prior to his shooting. AQAP has helped inspire a series of attacks in the U.S. The group has directed some failed plots, including the attempt to bring down a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day 2009, as well as other attempts to detonate explosives on board aircraft. The AQAP leader portrays the shooting in Florida as retaliation for a series of crimes allegedly committed by the U.S. and adds that people like al-Shamrani will continue to undermine American security. Read the article at the Long War Journal.