2 U.S. airmen killed in Frankfurt airport shooting

FRANKFURT, Germany — Two U.S. airmen were killed and two others were wounded at Frankfurt airport Wednesday when a man opened fire on them at close range, the first such attack on U.S. forces in Germany since 1986.

President Obama called the shooting an "outrageous act."

The suspected assailant, identified as a 21-year-old Kosovo man, was taken into custody and was being questioned, said Frankfurt police spokesman Manfred Fuellhardt.

Relatives 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 the airmen outside their military bus before opening fire, killing the bus driver and one other serviceman, and wounding two others, one of whom was in life-threatening condition, Fuellhardt said.

After the suspect fled into the airport terminal, he was grabbed by two federal police officers and a U.S. airman, authorities said. He was disarmed without incident.

Kosovo Interior Minister Bajram Rexhepi identified the suspect as Arif Uka, a Kosovo citizen from the northern town of Mitrovica. In Mitrovica, relatives identified him as Arid Uka, saying he was born and educated in Germany, where his family moved some 40 years ago. However, German police said he was born in Kosovo.

The airmen shot in Frankfurt were stationed at the Lakenheath airfield in England, home to the 48th Fighter Wing, the only F-15 fighter wing in Europe.

The dead and wounded U.S. airmen were not identified pending notification of their families. A Pentagon spokesman, Lt. Col. Todd Vician, said the airmen were on their way to an overseas deployment.

The victims 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 Air Force said.

"I'm saddened and I'm outraged by this attack," 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."

Boris Rhein, the top security official in the German state of Hesse, told German media there were no indications of a terrorist attack.

But a member of the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Patrick Meehan, R-Pa., said in Washington that it looked like a terrorist attack but added that he did not have all the facts.

The last time U.S. forces in Germany came under deadly attack was in the 1986 bombing of a disco frequented by U.S. servicemen. Two soldiers and one civilian were killed and 230 others were injured. A Berlin court later ruled the bombing was organized by Moammar Gadhafi's Libya.