12 dead, 31 hurt in Texas military base rampage

FORT HOOD, Texas (AFP) – A Muslim army officer about to be deployed to Iraq has gunned down 12 people and wounded 31 others at a sprawling Texas military base before being shot and taken into custody.

Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a US Army psychiatrist, opened fire Thursday with a semi-automatic weapon and a handgun at a Fort Hood medical processing center for troops being deployed overseas to Iraq and Afghanistan, officials said.

It is believed to have been the worst ever mass shooting at a US military base. Two civilians were among those wounded.

Base commander Lieutenant General Bob Cone said Hasan, whom he described as the lone gunman, was now in custody "in stable condition" after being shot multiple times.

Hasan's use of a semiautomatic weapon "might explain the rate of fire that he apparently obtained," Cone said. None of the weapons used in the attack were issued by the military.

Further bloodshed was narrowly prevented when the gunman was blocked from reaching a graduation ceremony attended by some 600 people, just meters away from the scene.

"Thanks to the quick reaction of several soldiers, they were able to close off the doors to that auditorium," Cone said, adding that a first-responder shot Hasan to end the rampage. She was wounded in the exchange but survived.

After interviewing over 100 people at the scene, authorities appeared to have ruled out the possibility of a second shooter. Hasan, 39, was "not currently speaking to investigators," Cone said, after wrongly telling reporters earlier that the gunman was dead.

President Barack Obama, who had been kept informed of the shooting as the drama was tracked in the White House situation room, denounced the "horrific outburst of violence" and urged Americans to pray for those killed and wounded.Related article: Obama reax

"It's difficult enough when we lose these brave Americans in battles overseas," he said. "It is horrifying that they should come under fire at an army base on American soil."

The US Senate held a moment of silence in somber acknowledgement of the rampage by Hasan, who studied at Virginia Tech University and did a residency at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.

The shooting spree dealt a blow to an American military already under severe strain from repeated combat tours during years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan and plagued by a rise in suicides and depression.

Obama could add to that burden in the coming weeks if he accedes to a demand from his war commander in Afghanistan for tens of thousands more troops to be deployed there to fight the Taliban.

Army suicides hit a record level last year, with at least 128 taking their own lives, and are on track to set a new high this year -- surpassing the rate among the wider civilian population.

Fort Hood, a central Texas base the size of a small town that houses tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians, was locked down after the shooting for several hours as the shocked community searched for a possible motive.

The shooter's cousin said the major was "mortified by the idea of having to deploy" and that Hasan had been harassed by other soldiers for being a Muslim.

"He wanted to do whatever he could within the rules to make sure he wouldn't go over," Nader Hasan told The New York Times, adding that his cousin had retained a lawyer and sought to get out of the army before the end of his contract.Related article: Shooter faced harassment

The army major was born in the United States to Palestinian parents who had emigrated from a small town near Jerusalem, Nader Hasan added.

Many of the victims, most military personnel, were taken to a local hospital, which put out an urgent call for blood donations as streams of wounded poured into its emergency rooms.

Fort Hood, the biggest US military base in the world, is the headquarters of the Army 3rd Corps, the 4th Infantry Division and the 1st Cavalry Division. All those units have seen extensive duty in Iraq.Facts: Fort Hood

Fatal shootings are rare at US military bases.

In May 2007, five men suspected of being Islamic militants were arrested by the FBI and charged with plotting to attack Fort Dix in New Jersey. Four were sentenced in April to life imprisonment, and the fifth to 30 years.