US in shock as violence of war hits at home

NEW YORK - Accustomed to terrible human loss overseas, the United States Army was last night struggling to come to terms with a savage outbreak of violence at home after an officer opened fire on the sprawling Fort Hood military base in Texas, which is at the tip of the spear of regular US troop deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.

After hours of confusion when the entire complex - the largest such base in the world - located between Waco and Austin, was on a security lockdown, a military spokesman confirmed the rampage had ended with the deaths of 12 people.

A 13th died late last night.

Thirty people were injured, and most were rushed to hospitals across Texas.

The shock that rippled across the country was hardly relieved after the shooter was identified as a trusted officer with medical duties.

Officials said Major Nadal Malik Hasan, a doctor and psychiatrist, was shot and wounded by military police at the scene but not before he had extinguished a dozen lives.

Military sources added that two other soldiers were apprehended, though by last night one had been released. There was no information on what role the second person may have had in the killings.

Hasan opened fire, they said, with two handguns. There was no reason he should have been bearing arms as a doctor.

Hasan, said to be 39 years old, allegedly opened fire about 1.30pm inside a personnel processing building.

It is a building soldiers routinely pass through while getting ready to deploy.

However, at least one of the victims was identified as a civilian.

A motive for the shooting was hard to pin down last night.

However, there were reports that Hasan, who was trained in psychiatry and medicine in Bethesda, Maryland, was preparing for deployment to Iraq and was not happy to be going there.

He had previously worked at the Walter Reed veterans' hospital outside Washington.

There have been six incidents on the ground in Iraq since the start of the conflict when US troops have been felled by one of their own with the loss of 14 lives.

Last May, a soldier opened fire on fellow soldiers in a medical facility at Camp Liberty outside Baghdad, killing five.

Lieutenant General Bob Cone said Fort Hood had suffered a terrible tragedy.

The shooting will rekindle debate about the strains that have been placed for years on the US military community after eight years of conflict in Afghanistan and Iraq.

For months, military leaders have been seeking ways to monitor the mental health of soldiers precisely to guard against such deadly tragedies.

Fort Hood is home to a programme set up to help returning soldiers cope with stress incurred by warfare.

In Washington, aides kept President Barack Obama abreast of developments at the complex that includes housing areas and several schools.

For soldiers, there was no emotional preparation for the shock of such an indiscriminate act of mass killing taking place on US soil.

As many as 500 military personnel were mobilised at one stage to do a sweep of the base to ensure its security.

Witnesses on the edge of the Fort Hood complex, meanwhile, saw ambulances coming and going from the main entrance and helicopters landing inside it to ferry the severely wounded to nearby hospitals.

Fort Hood has close to 50,000 soldiers assigned to it and is home to many military families.

As well as sending solders into harm's way in war zones - no other military base in the US has lost more men and women in Iraq than Fort Hood - it has seen many wounded personnel returning from war.

- INDEPENDENT