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13 killed in US Army base shooting
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A military psychiatrist who killed 13 people in a gun rampage on a US army base is being held in hospital under armed guard.
Armed with two non-military issue pistols, including a semi-automatic, Major Nidal Malik Hasan entered a station used to ready soldiers for deployment overseas at Fort Hood in Texas and started firing.
Within minutes, a dozen soldiers at the base were dead or dying in the worst mass shooting ever at a military base in the US.
A 13th person later died and at least 30 others - including two civilians - were injured in an attack described by President Barack Obama as a "horrific outburst of violence".
Officials were trying to establish what drove a military man to carry out such an act. It also emerged that Hasan was being investigated for possible links to an extremist website.
President Obama urged people not to jump to conclusions while law enforcement officials gather facts about the mass killings at Fort Hood.
The president ordered flags to be at half mast at the White House and other federal agencies until Veterans Day on Wednesday as a tribute to those who lost their lives.
The family of the attacker released a statement saying: "The actions of their cousin are despicable and deplorable."
Retired Colonel Terry Lee, who worked with Hasan, claimed the major was anti-war and rowed with comrades who supported operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hasan, a 39-year-old from Virginia, was also due to be sent to Afghanistan, something family members said would have been his "worst nightmare".
He was shot four times but survived and was being treated in hospital under armed guard. Army spokesman Lieutenant General Bob Cone said he was on a ventilator and unconscious, but added: "I would say his death is not imminent."
Reader views (1)
This incident will create paranoia in the US army at home and abroad.
- David Nigel Braham, Milan Italy, 06/11/2009 09:57
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