U.S. airmen killed in Frankfurt shooting

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) - Two U.S. airmen were killed and two others were wounded at Frankfurt airport when a man opened fire on them at close range with a handgun, the first such attack on American forces in Germany in a quarter century.

President Barack Obama called the Wednesday shooting an "outrageous act."

The alleged assailant, identified as a 21-year-old Kosovo man, was taken immediately into custody and 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 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. He said the attacker also briefly entered the bus.

The suspect then fled into the airport terminal, where he was quickly grabbed by two federal police officers and a U.S. airman who had pursued him into the building, authorities said. He was disarmed without incident.

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 England, the 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.