THE TELEGRAPH: A US army officer called Major Malik Nidal Hasan has been named as the man responsible for killing 13 people and injuring 30 more in a mass shooting at a Texas military base.
Major Hasan, a military psychiatrist who had allegedly called for Muslims to attack Americans over the Iraq war, is critically ill and under guard in hospital.
The authorities initially believed he had been killed in the ensuing gun battle with police but it later emerged he was still alive despite being shot four times in the incident at Fort Hood base, the largest American military installation in the world.
The serviceman was about to be posted to either Iraq or Afghanistan and argued regularly against the wars, it has been claimed.
Hasan, armed with two handguns, walked into a training centre and opened fire on fellow soldiers who were having last-minute medical check-ups before being deployed to Afghanistan. Thirteen were killed and 30 injured.
However, there were suggestions that some of the dead might have been shot by the authorities in their attempt to stop the gunman.
Hasan is now under guard in hospital where he is unconscious and on a ventilator. >>> Nick Allen in Los Angeles and Andy Bloxham | Friday, November 06, 2009
TIMES ONLINE: The man who turned guns on his fellow soldiers is an army psychiatrist trained to help his comrades come to terms with precisely the same scenes of terror that he himself brought to Fort Hood yesterday.
Major Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, is a mental health professional assigned to a base that is home to the US Army's "warrior reset programme", set up to help soldiers returning from war zones cope with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
He attracted the attention of police six months ago for internet postings analysing the motives of suicide bombers but was not formally investigated. Major Hasan had also complained to relatives of harassment by fellow-officers mocking him for "being Middle Eastern", according to a cousin who came forward last night.
Born and educated in Virginia, Major Hasan is a US citizen whose parents came from a small Palestinian town near Jerusalem. >>> Giles Whittell | Friday, November 06, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: Fort Hood shooting: gunman shouted 'Allahu Akbar' before opening fire: Soldiers who witnessed the shooting rampage that killed 13 people at Fort Hood military base in Texas have reported that gunman Major Nidal Malik Hasan shouted "Allahu Akbar" - God is great - before opening fire. >>> | Friday, November 06, 2009
