Gunman alive after US army base shooting

An army psychiatrist who opened fire on troops at a US military base in Texas, killing 13 and wounding 30, is being treated in hospital for gunshot wounds.

Authorities identified the suspected gunman as Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who had treated soldiers wounded in foreign wars preparing for foreign deployment at the post.

Lieutenant-General Robert Cone, Fort Hood's commanding officer, said that the investigation into the shooting is ongoing but 'preliminary reports indicate that there was a single shooter'.

He said that the gunman was in a stable condition.

Lt Gen Cone said Major Hasan had been shot multiple times. He had previously said the suspect was killed by police officers during the attack.

The US army said the gunman opened fire at about 1.30pm (7.30pm Irish time) at the Soldiers Readiness Processing Center, a group of buildings where soldiers were getting medical check-ups before leaving for overseas deployments.

The gunman had two weapons, one of them a semi-automatic, he said that there is no indication that they were military weapons.

It is one of the worst shooting incidents ever reported on a US military base. In May, a US soldier at a base in Baghdad shot and killed five fellow soldiers.

Lt Gen Cone said a college graduation ceremony for more than 100 soldiers was being held in an auditorium about 50m away when the shooting started.

He said soldiers as a rule do not carry weapons on the base. Military police and security guards are armed.

A cousin of the suspected shooter, Nader Hasan, told Fox News that he had been ordered to serve a term in Iraq and had been resisting such a deployment.

Mr Hasan said his cousin was a US-born Muslim who had joined the military from high school. He had served as a psychiatrist at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC, which treats many badly wounded troops.

He said his cousin had been transferred to Fort Hood in April and was very reluctant to be deployed to Iraq.

The incident raises new questions about the toll that six years of continuous fighting in Iraq and nearly eight years of fighting in Afghanistan have taken on the US military and on individual soldiers, many of whom have been on several combat tours.

US President Barack Obama, speaking in Washington, called the event a 'horrific outburst of violence' and promised 'answers to every single question about this horrible incident'.

Fort Hood is home to about 50,000 troops, although Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison said only about 35,000 were on base at the time.

The fort, established in 1942, stretches across 878sq/km in central Texas and is the state's largest single employer.