FORT HOOD: A US major is under guard at a Texas military base as officials investigate what prompted a shooting attack that left 13 people dead. Authorities named Major Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, as the man who opened fire on soldiers at Fort Hood yesterday. It is not clear what motivated him, but reports said the US-born Muslim psychiatrist was unhappy about being sent to Iraq or Afghanistan. Early this morning police raided his apartment to search for clues. Base commander Lt General Bob Cone said that one of the dead was a policeman and the others were soldiers. Thirty other people were injured in the attack. President Barack Obama described it as “a horrific outburst of violence”. He said: “It is difficult enough when we lose these brave men and women abroad, but it is horrifying that they should come under fire at an army base on US soil.” The president extended his condolences to the families of the victims, adding: “We will make sure that we get answers to every single question about this horrible incident.” The shooting began at about 1930 GMT yesterday at a personnel and medical centre at Fort Hood. Initial reports said that the gunman — armed with two handguns, one of them a semi-automatic — had been killed. However officials later said that the suspect was in custody. Cone said a graduation ceremony for a group of soldiers was taking place close to where the shooting began. “Thanks to the quick reaction of several soldiers, they were able to close off the doors to that auditorium where there were some 600 people inside,” he said. “As horrible as this was, I think it could have been much worse.” Major Hasan is said to be in a stable condition after being shot several times. Lt Gen Cone said his death was “not imminent”. A picture is beginning to emerge of the suspect, a psychiatrist who was transferred to the Texas base in July. Reports suggested that he had been increasingly unhappy in the military and that his work at his previous post — Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington DC — had been the subject of concern. His cousin told US media that Major Hasan had been opposed to an imminent deployment overseas, describing it as his “worst nightmare”. He also said that Major Hasan had been battling racial harassment because of his “Middle Eastern ethnicity”. The New York Times said the FBI had been investigating internet postings by a man called Nidal Hasan that appeared to back suicide bombings — but said it was not clear whether it was the suspect. Asked whether the shootings were a terrorist act, Lt Gen Cone said: “I couldn’t rule that out but I’m telling you that right now, the evidence does not suggest that.” The attack triggered shock and grief in Fort Hood, the largest US base in the world which is home to about 40,000 troops. Soldiers used their clothes to treat the injured and a local hospital called for blood donors as wounded people were brought in.

Was Major Hasan troubled?

WASHINGTON: His name appears on radical Internet postings. A fellow officer says he fought his deployment to Iraq and argued with soldiers who supported US wars. He required counselling as a medical student because of problems with patients. There are many unknowns about Nidal Malik Hasan, the man authorities say is responsible for the worst mass killing on a US military base. Most of all, his motive. But details of his life and mindset, emerging from official sources and personal acquaintances, are troubling. For six years before reporting for duty at Fort Hood, Texas, in July, the 39-year-old Army major worked at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center pursuing his career in psychiatry, as an intern, a resident and, last year, a fellow in disaster and preventive psychiatry. He received his medical degree from the military’s Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md., in 2001. While an intern at Walter Reed, Hasan had some “difficulties” that required counseling and extra supervision. — AP