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PICTURED: Syrian-born college student, 20, who was shot dead as he carried out 'terrorist-related' attack at Texas naval base and had 'previously voiced support on social media for hardline Islamic clerics'

The suspect who was shot dead as he carried out Thursday's 'terrorism-related' attack on a Texas naval air base has been ident...

The suspect who was shot dead as he carried out Thursday's 'terrorism-related' attack on a Texas naval air base has been identified by the FBI as a 20-year-old Syrian-born college student. 
According to investigators, Adam Salim Alsahli opened fire at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi in an attack that wounded one sailor, a member of the base security force, but no one other than the assailant was killed. 
A group that monitors online activity of jihadists has since claimed that Alsahli voiced support for hardline Islamic clerics on social media prior to the thwarted attack. 
Alsahli lived in Corpus Christi and had been a business major at a local community college. A law enforcement official familiar with the investigation said Alsahli was a native of Syria who held US citizenship.
Del Mar College provided a photo to the Associated Press on Friday showing Alsahli as pictured on his student identification card.  
The gunman tried to speed through a security gate at the base at 6.15am, opening fire and wounding the sailor. But she was able to roll over and hit a switch that raised a barrier, preventing Alsahli from getting onto the base, the officials said.
Other security personnel then opened fire on the attacker, killing him.
There was an initial concern that Alshali may have had an explosive device, but Navy experts swept the area and the car and found nothing. 
The FBI is examining social media posts investigators believe were made by the 20-year-old expressing support for extremist groups like Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, two officials familiar with the investigation said. 
FBI investigators said the shooting incident at a Texas naval air station Thursday morning was a 'terror' attack
FBI investigators said the shooting incident at a Texas naval air station Thursday morning was a 'terror' attack
Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Friday on 'The Today Show' that the wounded sailor is 'doing well.' He also said the FBI knows the basics of what happened during the attack but is working through details, including about the suspect.
'We hope to know more in the coming days as to what happened, what this person was motivated by,' Esper said. 'But we need to let the facts come out, let the investigators do their job, and we´ll see where this ends up.'
Social media accounts matching Alsahli's profile on Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp featured support for hardline clerics, mostly from Saudi Arabia, and jihadi figures such as Ibrahim al-Rabaysh, who had been a spokesman for the Yemen branch of Al Qaeda and who was killed by a US drone strike in 2015, according to Rita Katz, director of the SITE Intelligence Group.
Katz tweeted a translated version of a passage posted on Alsahli's Twitter page, which read: 'I love the Mujahidin [sic], I’m not one of them and my sword is aimed over the necks of whoever doubts them (stabs them). '
Corpus Christi police SWAT and FBI agents surround a home near Saratoga Boulevard on Thursday, possibly related to the attack on the naval base
Corpus Christi police SWAT and FBI agents surround a home near Saratoga Boulevard on Thursday, possibly related to the attack on the naval base
Alsahli had been a student at Del Mar College, a community college in Corpus Christi, according to a statement on Friday from school spokeswoman Melinda Eddleman. He had been a business administration major and had attended classes in the fall 2018, spring 2019 and fall 2019 semesters.
A search of court records in Corpus Christi showed Alsahli had received a traffic ticket in August for failing to yield. The ticket was dismissed in January after Alsahli took a driver's safety course.
FBI Supervisory Senior Resident Agent Leah Greeves said at a news conference Thursday that investigators were working to determine whether a second person of interest was at large but did not elaborate. 

She also would not discuss a potential motive or specify what led investigators to believe the shooting was related to terrorism.
'We have determined that the incident at the Naval Air Station Corpus Christi is terrorism related,' Greeves said. 'We are working diligently with our state, local and federal partners on this investigation, which is fluid and evolving.'
Later, federal agents were seen carrying items from inside a house that a Corpus Christi police tactical unit had surrounded and a public records search by local television station KRIS indicated was Alsahli's last known address. A police spokesman would not confirm that the activity was related to the shooting at the Naval station.
The FBI's field office in Houston has taken the lead on the investigation, and neither investigators nor the Navy provided details on the shooter or a possible motive. Attorney General William Barr has also been briefed, a Justice Department spokeswoman said.
The injured sailor was discharged from a hospital where she was treated for minor injuries, according to a statement from the command.
Officials said the shooter was in the vicinity of the North Gate around 6.15am and immediately locked down the base
Officials said the shooter was in the vicinity of the North Gate around 6.15am and immediately locked down the base
Scene as armed man wounds sailor at a Texas naval base
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A short time later, the shooter was 'neutralized', base officials said in a statement. Police at the scene of the incident Thursday morning
A short time later, the shooter was 'neutralized', base officials said in a statement. Police at the scene of the incident Thursday morning
The shooter was reported at the North Gate (star, far right), according to Navy officials
The shooter was reported at the North Gate (star, far right), according to Navy officials 
The naval station had a nearly identical incident in February 2019 when a man drove a stolen vehicle through a checkpoint at the base before crashing it along Ocean Drive. That suspect was also fatally shot. 
In another incident at the base in 2019, a man pleaded guilty to destruction of US government property and possession of a stolen firearm for ramming his truck into a barricade at the Corpus Christi station.

According to the Navy, the facility is located on the Texas Gulf Coast approximately 220 miles from Houston. 
The base employs more than 9,700 people full-time, including 1,900 active duty Navy and Marine personnel. 
The Corpus Christi shooting comes just days after Attorney General William Barr linked Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, a gunman who killed three sailors during a December 2019 attack at the Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida, to al-Qaida. 
Law enforcement officials discovered contacts between Alshamrani and operatives of al-Qaida after FBI technicians succeeded in breaking into two cellphones that had previously been locked and that the shooter, a Saudi Air Force officer, had tried to destroy before he was killed by a sheriff's deputy. 
'We now have a clearer understanding of Alshamrani's associations and activities in the years, months and days leading up to his attack,' Barr said at a news conference on Tuesday.  
Law enforcement officials had previously left no doubt that Alshamrani was motivated by jihadist ideology, saying he visited a New York City memorial to the attacks of September 11, 2001, over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. 
Authorities said Alshamrani also posted anti-American and anti-Israeli messages on social media just hours before the shooting.
Separately, AQAP, al-Qaida´s branch in Yemen, released a video claiming the attack. AQAP has long been considered the global network´s most dangerous branch.

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