7:35pm UK, Thursday November 12, 2009

Adam Arnold,
Sky News Online

The man suspected of carrying out the massacre at Fort Hood military base in the US has been charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder.

Major Nidal Malik Hasan, an army psychiatrist, is accused of the shooting rampage last week in Texas.

More charges may be brought against him, said Chris Grey, a spokesman for the army’s criminal investigation division.

The spokesman added: “We are doing everything possible and we are looking at every reason for this shooting.”

Hasan will be tried in a military court and could face the death penalty if convicted.

The news comes as President Obama ordered a review of how intelligence agencies handled information they had gathered on Hasan before the shootings.

There have been questions about whether American authorities may have missed warning signs about him.

The US government has confirmed communications between Hasan and a radical Muslim cleric were investigated last year but did not merit further inquiry.

Investigators concluded he was corresponding with the cleric about a research paper on the effects of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mr Obama said: “I directed an immediate review be initiated to determine how any such intelligence was handled, shared, and acted upon within individual departments and agencies and what intelligence was shared with others.

Those killed in the November 5 attack included 12 soldiers and one civilian, while 42 other people were wounded.

Military legal authorities are reportedly deciding whether to add a 14th murder charge because one of the fallen female troops was pregnant.

The Obamas at a memorial for the victims of the Fort Hood shooting

Hasan, a 39-year-old Muslim, has been in hospital since suffering gunshot wounds and has declined to talk to investigators, his lawyer said.

The suspect is currently being held “under pre-trial restriction while receiving medical care”, army spokesman Chris Grey said.

He added the investigation was ongoing, but it was still believed the gunman acted alone.

Meanwhile, Hasan’s family is rejecting claims he was linked to Islamist radicals.

A close relative spoke to Sky News in the West Bank town of Ramallah on condition of anonymity, afraid of reprisals against his family in America.

With Hasan now out of a coma, his relative spoke of the extreme pressures the military doctor had been working under, treating injured patients returning from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“He was taking things very personally. When he talked about certain patients he was crying,” the relative said.

“He was complaining there was not enough time to treat his patients properly. He could not separate his emotions from his job”.