Four Saudis who took part in the assassination of opposition journalist Jamal Khashkadzhi had previously received military training in the United States, writes The New York Times.
“The four Saudis who participated in the 2018 assassination of The Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashkadzhi had received combat training in the United States a year earlier, under the terms of a contract approved by the State Department,” the newspaper writes, citing its sources.
The combat training, for which the Arkansas-based Tier 1 Group was in charge, included training in “safe shooting” and “attack response,” and Saudi Arabians were also trained in surveillance and close combat.
Khashkadzhi was killed in October 2018 in Istanbul at the Saudi Arabian consulate. Initially, the kingdom’s authorities denied his disappearance in the diplomatic mission, but after the appearance of video and audio recordings, they were forced to admit that the journalist was killed “as a result of a quarrel with consular officers,” but the Turkish police were never able to find his body.