March 2, 201115 yr Kosovan gunman 'shouted Islamic slogans' before shooting dead two U.S. airmen on bus at Frankfurt airport By Allan Hall Last updated at 8:22 PM on 2nd March 2011 Comments (38) Add to My Stories Lone Kosovan gunman, 21, shot dead soldier and driverKosovan authorities identify suspect as Arif UkaThe bus driver and a passenger are deadTroops had just arrived in Germany from Britain'Too early to say if it is terrorist attack,' say police Two American airmen were shot dead and another left fighting for his life today after a Kosovo Albanian gunman stormed their bus before opening fire at Germany’s busiest airport. Some media reports said the gunman identified as Arik Uka, 21, shouted out 'Islamic slogans' before opening fire. He gunned down his first victim as the soldier stood in front of the vehicle at Terminal 2 before turning his weapon on the driver as he sat behind the wheel. Investigation: Firemen attach blankets to the U.S. military bus where two American airmen were shot dead at Frankfurt Airport today Deadly: The troops had just got off a flight and were being taken to barracks when a Kosovan man opened fire A fourth man was lightly injured and both he and the gravely wounded man are now being treated at the city’s University Clinic Hospital. The airport, continental Europe’s second biggest after Paris, is routinely used by American soldiers based in Germany for arrivals and departures. More... Sprayed with 25 bullets: Pakistan's only Christian minister executed by Taliban gunman after campaigning for free speech According to city police spokesman Manfred Füllhardt, the bus load of airmen had just arrived from England and had boarded the bus to go to the American military base at Ramstein, a few dozen miles to the southwest of the Frankfurt Airport. Mr Füllhardt said the suspect argued with some of the airmen before shooting one who was standing in the open door as well as the driver. He was captured by a Hesse state police officer who was at the airport, which typically has heavy security which has been beefed in recent months following warnings that Germany would be a terror target. Police arrested the Kosovo man yards from the bus with the automatic weapon he used. He was also armed with a knife. In Washington, President Obama said he was 'saddened and outraged' by the attack. 'We will spare no effort in learning how this outrageous act took place and in working with German authorities to ensure that all of the perpetrators are brought to justice.' Stationary: The bus was parked outside Terminal 2 of the airport when the attack occurred En route: The soldiers had just arrived in Germany having left their Lakenheath base in Britain FRANKFURT, A HOTBED OF EXTREMISM IN WEST GERMANY In the murky world of international terrorism, the city of Frankfurt comes up again and again. It was here that 9/11 terrorist Mohamed Atta was observed buying chemicals while he was based in Germany the year before he flew a plane into one of the Twin Towers. In 2007, terrorists were plotting to strike the city's airport on the sixth anniversary of 9/11. Prosecutors said they disrupted what would have been the 'worst terror attack in German history'. The group were jailed for between five and 12 years in March last year after being found guilty of plotting to cause explosions several times bigger than on 7/7. Fritz Gelowicz, 30, and Daniel Schneider, 24, were jailed for 12 years. Adem Yilmaz, 31, was told he must serve 11 years behind bars and Attila Selek, 25, was given five years. The U.S. military has a number of major bases near Frankfurt, including the Ramstein airbase, which are used as hubs for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Germany, which opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq but has more than 4,000 troops in Afghanistan, has beefed up security and surveillance in response to the threat of attacks in recent years. Frankfurt, in the south-west of Germany, has a population of 2.3million people. It is a cosmopolitan city with a large number of Turks and Italians, although it is unclear how big the Kosovan community is. German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the shooting and called it a 'terrible incident'. 'We'll do everything possible to find out what happened,' she pledged. She said her sympathies were with the victims and their families. At the airport, taxi cab driver Salimi Seraidon said he was sitting at a stand about 200 yards away when the attack took place, and that it was over quickly as police rushed onto the scene. 'We just heard the shots,' he said At least one round pierced the window of the bus that contained young American airmen, all of whom were dressed in civvies. Most of them required psychological counselling after the attack, according to German police. Flights around Europe continued to operate normally after the ambush as a massive security operation at the airport swung into operation. 'Only time will tell if this terrible and shocking act has a terrorist background,' said Boris Rhein, interior minister of the state of Hesse who was supervising the police investigation. Armed police threw a cordon around part of the terminal and sniffer dogs were used to check if any bags bearing bombs had been left in the airport building. 'We cannot exclude anything at the moment, ' said the minister, 'We will have to take a very close look at the perpetrator.' Police spokesman Jürgen Linker said; 'Everything happened inside the bus.' Eyewitnesses said the man 'infiltrated' himself among the GIs before shouting out radical Islamic slogans and then reaching into a bag for his gun. Kosovo Interior Minister Bajram Rexhepi said that the gunman had been identified as Arif Uka a Kosovo citizen from the northern town of Mitrovica. He had recently been living in Germany. 'This is a devastating and a tragic event,' Rexhepi said. U.S. soldiers arrive at the scene in the wake of the shooting: There had initially been fears that there might also be a bomb at the site At the scene: The German chancellor Angela Merkel said everything would be done to get to the bottom of the killings 'We are trying to find out was this something that was organised or what was the nature of the attack.' Although the motives for the attack are still unclear, many Kosovans are Muslims, raising the suspicion that Islamic extremism may have been a factor behind the attack In the States, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Patrick Meehan, said in Washington that it looked like a terrorist attack. Investigators spend the afternoon carrying out a finger-tip search of the scene. The wheel of the bus where the driver had been sitting was swathed in sheets. Only last year the interior ministry in Berlin put Germany on high alert for a terror attack after receiving information that al-Qaeda was planning 'a bloodbath' because of German involvement in Afghanistan. The bus was a U.S. military model and thought to have come from the massive Ramstein air force base near Cologne in the west of Germany. American servicemen in Germany have long been considered vulnerable to a terrorist attack: three years ago Germans who converted to radical Islam were caught planning to explode huge car bombs at American bases and civilian sites used by military personnel.
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