Obama outrage at airmen's murder

Two British-based US airmen were killed and two others wounded when a man armed with a handgun opened fire on them at close range.

Yesterday’s attack at Frankfurt airport, the first on American forces in Germany in a quarter of a century, was described by US president Barack Obama as an “outrageous act”.

The suspect, identified as a 21-year-old man from Kosovo who apparently worked at the airport, was being questioned by authorities, said Frankfurt police spokesman Manfred Fuellhardt.

Family members in Kosovo described the suspect as a devout Muslim who was born and raised in Germany and worked at the airport.

The attacker got into an argument with airmen, based at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk, outside their military bus before opening fire, killing the bus driver and one other serviceman and wounding two others, one of whom was in a life-threatening condition, Mr Fuellhardt said. He said the attacker also briefly entered the bus.

The suspect then fled into the airport terminal, where he was grabbed and disarmed by two police officers and a US airman who had chased him into the building, authorities said.

The victims, part of a group of about a dozen members of an air force military police and base security unit, had just arrived from Lakenheath, home to the 48th Fighter Wing, the US Air Force said.

They had landed at Frankfurt airport, one of Europe’s busiest, and were waiting outside Terminal 2 to be driven to nearby Ramstein air base, which is often used as a logistical hub for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. The two wounded airmen were taken to a hospital.

“I’m saddened and I’m outraged by this attack,” Mr Obama said at the White House. “I want everybody to understand that we will spare no effort in learning how this outrageous act took place.”

In Berlin, German chancellor Angela Merkel expressed sympathy for the victims and their families and promised Germany would do everything in its power to investigate the crime. “It is a terrible event,” she said.

A tall blue barrier was erected around the bus as forensic experts examined it and removed two bodies from the vehicle. As the bus was later towed away, a bullet hole was visible through the driver’s side window.

The dead and wounded US airmen were not identified pending notification of their families. Pentagon spokesman Lt Col Todd Vician said the airmen were on their way to an overseas deployment to Afghanistan, Iraq or elsewhere.

Boris Rhein, the top security official in the German state of Hesse, said there were no indications of a terrorist attack, but a member of the US House Homeland Security Committee, Rep Patrick Meehan, said in Washington that it looked like one.

The chairman of the sub-committee that focuses on terrorism and intelligence added he did not have all the facts.

Kosovo’s interior minister Bajram Rexhepi identified the suspect as Arif Uka, a Kosovo citizen from the northern town of Mitrovica.

In Mitrovica, family members identified him as Arid Uka, saying he was born and educated in Germany where his family moved about 40 years ago. German police, however, said he was born in Kosovo.

An uncle, Rexhep Uka, said the suspect’s grandfather was a religious leader at a mosque in a village near Mitrovica.

A cousin, Behxhet Uka, said he spoke to the suspect’s father, Murat Uka, several times by telephone from Frankfurt after the family was contacted by Kosovo police. The father said all he knew was that his son did not come home from his job at the airport yesterday.

Behxet Uka said he would be shocked if Arid Uka was behind the shooting, saying that like the vast majority of Kosovo Albanians, the family was pro-American.

The northern town of Mitrovica is best known for the ethnic division between majority ethnic Albanians and minority Serbs. The former mining town has also been the focus of reports that it breeds Islamic extremists.

Western intelligence reports have said the region could be a recruitment ground for Muslims with Western features who could easily blend into European or US cities and carry out terrorist attacks.

The Kosovo government said it was “deeply moved” by what it branded as “a monstrous act” committed by a citizen of Kosovo origin.

“This macabre case is an individual act against the civilised values and the traditions of the Kosovo people who will always be thankful to the US, the American people and the US government for its strong backing of Kosovo,” it said.

The last time American forces in Germany came under deadly attack was in the 1986 bombing of a disco frequented by US servicemen. Two soldiers and one civilian were killed and 230 others were injured. A Berlin court later ruled the bombing was organised by Libya.

US Air Force chief of staff General Norton Schwartz said today: ``Our deepest sympathy and sincerest condolences go out to the family, friends and team-mates of those airmen killed and wounded in the shooting incident at Frankfurt International Airport.

“This loss is felt across our entire service and our air force family yearns for a quick and full recovery of those wounded and those family members in pain.”