AFP/Fort Hood, Texas
A stunned nation battled to understand yesterday why an army psychiatrist snapped, gunning down 13 people and wounding 30 others in a trail of bloodshed at a sprawling US military base.
Major Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, a specialist in combat stress, was under guard and in stable condition on a ventilator after being shot and seriously wounded during Thursday’s rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, officials said.
But so far Hasan, who had been fighting orders to deploy to Afghanistan, has not spoken about his actions from his bed in a nearby civilian hospital.
“We’re not going to speculate about motives,” Colonel John Rossi, the deputy Fort Hood commander, told reporters here early yesterday.
An investigation has been launched. But it remained unclear whether Hasan had snapped after counseling scores of troops scarred by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, or whether he was motivated by other deeper convictions.
Witnesses apparently heard Hasan shout a religious chant as he opened fire in a troop processing centre on the base with a semiautomatic weapon and a handgun, the base commander said.
“There are first-hand accounts here from soldiers here that are similar to that,” Lieutenant-General Bob Cone said.
A surveillance video aired by CNN showed the major buying breakfast wearing traditional Muslim garb at a base store just hours before he went on the rampage.
The shooting spree dealt a new blow to US forces already under severe strain from repeated combat tours and plagued by a rise in suicides and depression.
Twenty-eight of the wounded remained in hospital yesterday morning after the attack described by President Barack Obama as a “horrific outburst of violence”.
Most of the victims were military personnel, and Fort Hood, the world’s largest US military base, was in mourning as dozens of mental health specialists and counselors sought to help grief-stricken victims and families.
Secretary of the Army John McHugh, and Army chief of staff General George Casey were heading to the base to join the solemn commemorations.
Chairman of the joint chiefs of staff Admiral Mike Mullen said on his Twitter account there would be a moment’s silence and prayer at 1934 GMT.
“Please join OUR military in a moment of silence & prayer 4 the fallen @ Fort Hood - TODAY @ 2:34pmET,” he said in his Tweet.
But amid the sorrow, the shooting raised delicate questions about Muslim soldiers serving in the US Army, as some Muslim groups feared a huge backlash.
Seeking to allay those concerns, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said yesterday that the army always has “a deep and enduring concern that everyone be treated with respect”.
Hasan was born in the US to Palestinian parents who had moved from a small town near Jerusalem.
But his cousin Nader Hasan, writing on behalf of the family as Hasan’s parents are dead, said they were stunned by Thursday’s events and stressed they all considered themselves Americans.
“Our family loves America. We are proud of our country, and saddened by today’s tragedy,” Nader Hasan said in the message posted on the Washington Post website.
Nidal Hasan’s aunt, Noel Hasan, told the daily her nephew had been subjected to harassment about his faith since the September 11, 2001 attacks and had repeatedly sought to be discharged.
Some were convinced Hasan lost control due to the strains of his job.
“What happened at Fort Hood is probably a result of the accumulated stress of working with thousands of soldiers who have returned from war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan as shattered humans who have participated in or exposed to the horrific carnage of war,” said retired Army Colonel Ann Wright in a statement.
Ten Fort Hood soldiers have reportedly committed suicide this year, according to the statement released by anti-war group Code Pink.
“The questions many here in Texas would ask are when will this nightmare end? And how will we properly care for the ‘walking wounded’ we have created?” added Fran Hanlon, a member of a Fort Hood outreach centre.
Fort Hood, which houses tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians, has shouldered some of the nation’s biggest burdens, suffering the highest casualties in the war of any US military base.
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