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Tennessee gunman found to have followed Al-Qaeda member online

Xinhua, July 22, 2015 Adjust font size:

U.S. authorities have found evidence that the gunman who killed four U.S. Marines and fatally wounded a Navy sailor last week in Tennessee followed a radical American member of Al-Qaeda online in 2013, local media reported Tuesday.

The ABC TV network quoted an anonymous source familiar with the investigation as saying that Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez, a 24-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Kuwait, did online research in 2013 for militant Islamist "guidance" on committing violence.

Meanwhile, Abdulazeez's personal diary uncovered earlier by investigators indicated that the author was suicidal and displeased with the U.S. government, especially its war on terrorism.

However, so far there was no evidence that Abdulazeez, who his family insisted is deeply troubled and mentally ill, was either inspired or directed by extremist group Islamic State (IS).

On Monday, a friend of Abdulazeez's told U.S. TV network CNN that Abdulazeez did not approve of the killings by IS and said the group was "doing wrong."

In the shooting spree at two Chattanooga military facilities in Tennessee on Thursday, Abdulazeez killed four U.S. Marines and fatally wounded a Navy sailor who died on Saturday. Abdulazeez was shot dead during confrontation with the police.

The shooting incidents came at a time when the U.S. authorities were becoming increasingly concerned about threats posed by domestic IS sympathizers.

Given the looming danger posed by possible domestic attacks, the U.S. military in May announced that the security status at domestic U.S. military bases was raised to "Force Protection Bravo," a level defined by the U.S. military as an "increased and predictable threat of terrorism."

After Thursday's shooting incidents, the U.S. Defense Department said Friday that the general security level had not been raised at military installations around the country. However, it warned individual station commanders to take extra precautions at their discretion. Endi