Texas base shooter praised

2009-11-06 22:14

Nicosia - A video has praised the Muslim officer who shot dead 13 people and wounded 30 others in a shooting spree at a US Army base, saying he had "put terror and chaos in the ranks of the enemy," the SITE Intelligence Group said on Friday.

Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who was due to be sent to Iraq, "did not accept dying in the war on his Muslim brothers; instead, he wanted to die fighting the enemies of Allah, the infidels who are fighting this Islamic Ummah (community of the faithful)", the unsigned video said.

"So we give congratulations to the Ummah for their jihadist operation executed by the brother Nidal Malik Hasan on the American base where he was working as a psychiatrist and recently (received orders to go Iraq), and he seemed upset and did not want to participate in this war, and he did not want to be among the ranks of infidels against his Muslim brothers."

'Terror in the ranks'

He "did jihad (holy war) in that base and killed no less than 13 Crusader foreigners and wounded 31 and put terror and chaos in the ranks of the enemy", said the video, first published on the Fallujah forum and then picked up by other sites.

"This is the brother of Islam O America ... This is the son of Islam," it added.

"So, America, we say to you again ... You will not have peace in your country until we have (it as a reality in our Islamic lands), and you withdraw your armies that invade the lands of Islam."

Hasan, 39, a specialist in combat stress, was under guard and in stable condition on a ventilator after being shot and seriously wounded during Thursday's rampage at Fort Hood in Texas, officials said.

Fighting deployment

But so far Hasan, who had been fighting orders to deploy to Afghanistan, has not spoken about his actions from his bed in a nearby civilian hospital.

Hasan is said to be a devout Muslim. People who know him have expressed differences about whether his faith was so fanatical that he would be driven to violence on its behalf.

Witnesses apparently heard him shout "Allahu Akbar!" (God is greatest) as he opened fire in a troop processing centre on the base with a semi-automatic weapon and a handgun, the base commander said.

- AFP