Washington, DC, October 6 (ANI): The United States military has advanced significantly toward carrying out the execution of Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who was convicted of murdering 13 people and wounding more than 30 others during the 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas.
The Pentagon announced Monday that President Donald Trump has authorized his execution by firing squad, a method not used by the US military since 1961.
If carried out, Hasan’s execution would be the first military execution by the United States armed forces in decades.
In a statement posted on X, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said, “US War Secretary Pete Hegseth has recommended, and President Donald J. Trump has approved, death by US Army firing squad for convicted terrorist Nidal Malik Hasan.”
Parnell further wrote, “The Secretary of the Army will set the time and place of the execution. Judgement day for Hasan has finally come.”
A military jury sentenced Hasan to death in 2013 following his conviction in connection with the Fort Hood mass shooting, an attack prosecutors argued was inspired by Al-Qaeda.
Throughout his court-martial proceedings, Hasan represented himself, did not call witnesses, declined to testify and made no effort to dispute the charges. His court-appointed defense counsel had previously expressed concerns that he was actively seeking a death sentence.
Hasan, a US-born Muslim of Palestinian heritage, began firing on November 5, 2009, inside a medical building at the Fort Hood military base. The installation served as a major staging area for US military personnel preparing for combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Among those killed, 12 were soldiers and one was a civilian. Thirty others were wounded during the incident. Responding civilian police officers shot Hasan, leaving him partially paralyzed.
Testimony presented during the trial revealed that Hasan opposed US military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. Evidence also showed that he maintained online communications with Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born radical cleric linked to Al-Qaeda who was later killed in a US drone strike in Yemen.
While mass shootings remain relatively frequent across the United States, incidents at US military installations are less common.
In 2025, a soldier opened fire at a US military base in Georgia, injuring five fellow service members before being subdued and arrested.
In 2019, a US Navy sailor fatally shot two people and wounded another at a military facility in Hawaii. That same year, a Saudi military student killed three people at a US facility in Florida.
In 2015, a US citizen born in Kuwait attacked two military facilities in Tennessee, killing four Marines and a sailor. Subsequent FBI investigations determined that the attack was inspired by a “foreign terrorist group.”
Two years earlier, a gunman killed 12 people and wounded eight others at the Washington Navy Yard in the US capital before police officers shot and killed the assailant. (ANI)
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