Fort Hood killer dreaded deployment to a war zone

Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the US Army psychiatrist who killed 13 soldiers yesterday at the vast Fort Hood military camp in Texas, is still alive, despite first reports that he died after being shot four times by a policewoman. He is in hospital under armed guard.

An Army spokesman confirmed that one eyewitness reported Hasan shouting "Allahu Akbar" - Arabic for "God is great" - as he shot his victims. But while he is said to have been a devout Muslim, no evidence has surfaced of his being a fundamentalist and terrorism has been ruled out.

What precisely motivated the 39-year-old from Virginia to turn his gun on his fellow soldiers remains a mystery. But a picture has begun to emerge of a deeply troubled man.

First, according to family, his worst nightmare was to be deployed to a war zone. He had never served on the frontline and had recently learned that he was to be sent to Afghanistan at the end of November.

"We just found out that he was being deployed. He never even told us," his cousin Nader Hasan told Fox News. "We've known for the last five years that was probably his worst nightmare."

Second, although Hasan was born and brought up in Virginia, his family background is Jordanian and he is said to have been the subject of harassment from colleagues because of his 'Middle Eastern ethnicity'.

"I don't think he's ever been disenchanted with the military," his cousin said. "It was the harassment."

Finally, the stories he heard in his capacity as a psychiatrist from soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are said to have affected him deeply. Before he was posted to Fort Hood in July this year, he had worked at the Army's Walter Reed medical centre in Washington DC with troops suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. "He would tell us how he would hear things, horrific things," his cousin said.

Last night, Fort Hood - the largest US military base in the world, with up to 52,000 men and women stationed there at any one time - was on lockdown, with soldiers confined to their barracks and all civilians sent home.

Twelve people were killed and another 31 wounded when Hasan opened fire with two handguns at the base's soldier readiness centre. A 13th died overnight from their injuries.

According to the Fort Hood commander, Lt Gen Bob Cone, it was the "amazing and aggressive performance" of a Texas policewoman stationed on the base, Sgt Kimberley Munley, that brought the shooting spree to an end. She shot Hasan four times despite being hit herself.

President Barack Obama interrupted a speech in Washington to say: "It is horrifying that they should come under fire at an army base on American soil. We will make sure that we get answers to every single question about this horrible incident. We are going to stay on this."

Later in the day, the president announced that all flags at the White House and on other federal buildings would be flown at half-mast until Veterans Day on November 11. He said the "entire nation" was grieving for the 13 killed.

In the medium-term, the problem for the White House and the Pentagon is what effect the shooting will have on public opinion about the war in Afghanistan, where Obama is under pressure from his generals to send another 40,000 troops.

This week's tragic incident in Helmand province, where five British soldiers were killed by a member of the Taliban who had infiltrated the Afghan police, has already added weight to the 'troops out' argument. Major Hasan's rampage at Fort Hood is thought likely to have a similar effect.

There will be also be questions about why Hasan's fragile state was not spotted by his fellow psychiatrists.