Shots fired near Camp Shelby in Mississippi, no injuries
By Therese Apel
NEW AUGUSTA, Miss. (Reuters) - Shots were fired outside a military post in Mississippi where soldiers were training on Tuesday, and authorities were searching for the suspected shooter.
No one was injured when the shots were fired in the direction of two soldiers at Camp Shelby, Perry County Sheriff Jimmy Dale Smith said. He said it was not known whether they were targeted or if the shots were from hunters.
Authorities were searching for a maroon pickup truck believed to have been driven by a man, Perry said.
The sheriff's department questioned two men after authorities found a truck matching an earlier description of the vehicle driven by the suspected shooter, according to the Mississippi Highway Patrol.
The men were released without charges, Smith said.
Soldiers at the camp, located 110 miles (177 km) north of New Orleans, reported the shots to their commanding officers, who in turn told local authorities, Lieutenant Colonel Christian Patterson, director of public affairs at the Mississippi Military Department, said in a news release.
The incident follows the killing of five U.S. servicemen last month at a military training center in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in an attack by a gunman who was later fatally shot.
That incident, which the FBI has been investigating as an act of domestic terrorism, heightened concern about attacks on U.S. military targets by homegrown "lone wolves" inspired by Islamic State or other militant groups.
Camp Shelby, a training center that spans more than 134,000 acres (540 square km), is one of only two National Guard facilities activated as mobilization centers for overseas deployment, the camp's website says. It is also used to train active military personnel.
(Additional reporting by Letitia Stein; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Eric Beech)
