Motive unclear in killing of two US airmen at Frankfurt airport (The Christian Science Monitor)

Frankfurt – German authorities charged a Kosovar man for today's killing of two US airmen at the Frankfurt airport, a major transit point for American forces in Europe.

A police spokesperson said it was too early to determine if the attack was politically motivated or a planned act of terrorism. It has been reported that the shooter, identified as a Muslim in his early 20s, shouted "Allah Akbar" ("God is greatest") before opening fire.

The gunman apparently approached the bus full of airmen around 3 p.m. local time and shot and killed a soldier standing in front of the vehicle before killing the bus driver and wounding two other passengers, said Boris Rhein, Interior minister for the state of Hesse.

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"I am consciously speaking of homicide and not an attack," Mr. Rhein said at the scene. "But at the moment, nothing can be ruled out."

The airmen are based in the UK at the Lakenheath Airfield in Eastern England, which is home to the only F-15 fighter wing in Europe. It employs 4,500 active-duty military members. They had just arrived In Germany and were on their way to a base when the attack happened.

Frankfurt’s airport is Europe’s third busiest and armed police are a common sight in the airport's lobby. But the shooting took place in a public, nonsecure area just outside one of the two main terminals.

Germany is home to two-thirds of some 75,000 US troops stationed Europe, and Frankfurt's airport is a major transit point for the country's 18 US bases. The airport is also about an hour from the US Air Force's headquarters in Europe, Ramstein Air Force Base, which is often used as a logistical hub for operations in Afghanistan or Iraq.

"We use the airport all the time," says David Crawford, a former US military officer now living in the Frankfurt area. "It is a tragic event."

"It is very distressing, this is my home airport, this is the airport I go in and out of," says a woman married to a US airman who declined to give her name.

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Gunman kills two U.S. airmen at Frankfurt airport (Reuters)

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – German police arrested a man on Wednesday after two U.S. airmen were shot dead and two wounded in an incident on a U.S. Army bus at Frankfurt airport, authorities said.

Security round the airport was tightened and an investigation into the "terrible, senseless crime" was under way, said Boris Rhein, interior minister for Hesse state.

"Whether the incident was linked to terrorism I cannot say at this stage," he told reporters.

The suspected gunman was apparently a Kosovo national, he said. Police said he was 21.

A spokesman for Frankfurt airport operator Fraport said the shooting took place in a U.S. Army bus in front of Terminal 2. U.S. President Barack Obama said he was outraged by the attack.

Authorities in Kosovo believed they knew the identity of the suspected gunman but could not confirm it yet, Kosovo Interior Minister Bajram Rexhepi told Reuters in Pristina.

A police official identified the man as Arif Uka from the city of Mitrovica but no official confirmation was given yet.

"The government of the Republic of Kosovo is extremely touched and strongly condemns the killing of two American citizens and the wounding of two others by a citizen from Kosovo that happened today in Germany," the government said in a statement.

The United States has had troops in Kosovo since 1999, when a NATO bombing campaign pushed out Serbian forces. The U.S. troops there now are helping to oversee a fragile peace that has held since Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008.

Major Beverly Mock, spokeswoman for the U.S. Air Force at Rammstein air base in Germany, said the identities of the dead airmen had not yet been confirmed.

"The German authorities have the shooter in custody," she said.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, speaking in Berlin, told a news conference: "We don't know the details but I would like to express how upset I am. We have to do everything we can to find out what happened."

(Reporting by Tilman Blasshofer; additional reporting by Fatos Bytyci in Pristina, Annika Breidthardt and Sarah Marsh in Berlin and Maria Sheahan in Frankfurt; writing by John Stonestreet; editing by Angus MacSwan)

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