FBI cracks iPhone encryption, finds al Qaeda links to 2019 Florida naval base shooter

The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday

Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice

The FBI found links between al Qaeda and the Saudi terrorist who killed three US sailors in Florida after cracking the military trainee's iPhones, attorney general William Barr said.

The direct link between Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, 21, and al-Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) operative Abdullah al-Maliki led to a counter-terrorism operation in Yemen that left the group "seriously degraded".

While Mr Barr would not confirm whether the operation was an airstrike, he said he was "very pleased with the results".

FBI Director Christopher Wray said that evidence from the iPhones showed that Alshamrani was radicalised as far back as 2015, and he expressed to join the Saudi Air Force to carry out what he called a "special operation".

Alshamrani was a second lieutenant in the Royal Saudi Air Force on the base as part of a US Navy training program when he killed three and wounded eight others in December last year.

He was killed following the 15-minute shooting spree, in which he shot at a photo of Donald Trump and made statements critical of American soldiers overseas.

"We now know that Alshamrani continued to associate with AQAP even while living in Texas and in Florida; and that in the months before the attack, while he was here among us, he talked with AQAP about his plans and tactics--taking advantage of the information he acquired here, to assess how many people he could try to kill," Mr Wray said.

"We have more to learn. But we know enough now to see Alshamrani for what he was--a determined AQAP terrorist, who spent years preparing to attack us."

Mr Wray said Alshamrani was meticulous in his planning, which included:

In February, the Islamist militant group AQAP claimed responsibility for the attack but the access to the iPhones provided the first direct evidence of the connection.

The decryption heads off a confrontation between Apple and the Justice Department, which had been critical of the company for not comprising its customers' privacy in the interests of national security.

It was not clarified how the FBI cracked Apple's encryption security, but they said the technique was a limited application and was not a fix for the "broader Apple problem".

Mr Barr said it was clear that the phones contained important information as Alshamrani disengaged from the gunfight long enough to fire a bullet into one of the phones.

"We asked Apple for assistance, and the president asked Apple for assistance, unfortunately, Apple would not help us unlock the phones," Mr Barr said.

"Apple had deliberately designed them so that only the user, in this case, the terrorist, could gain access to their contents."