Asked Thursday by reporters whether Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was dead, U.S. President Donald Trump responded it "certainly looks" as if he is and that is "very sad."

There will be "very severe" consequences if the Saudis killed him, promised Trump, speaking on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews before boarding Air Force One.

Trump's administration is willing to give Saudi Arabia a bit more time to finish its investigation into Turkish allegations that agents from the kingdom killed Khashoggi inside Riyadh's consulate in Istanbul.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, after meeting with Saudi and Turkish leaders this week, briefed Trump at the White House earlier Thursday, telling him to give Saudi Arabia a few more days to complete its investigation of the disappearance of the writer, who lived in the U.S. state of Virginia.

After the U.S. assesses the Saudi report, Pompeo said, "the United States will determine what the appropriate response might be."

Pompeo said there were "a lot of stories out there about what has happened" to Khashoggi, but he declined to speculate on the outcome of investigations in Saudi Arabia and Turkey. The top U.S. diplomat said he believed "a complete picture will emerge" from the probes.

Pompeo said he told Saudi King Salman and the country's de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, that the U.S. was taking Khashoggi's fate "very seriously," but also noted that the U.S. and Saudi Arabia have had a "strategic alliance" for decades. (VOA)