Two Air Force Servicemen Killed In Frankfurt Attack

Two US servicemen were killed and at least two wounded Wednesday when gunman fired on their bus at Frankfurt International Airport.

An Air Force spokesperson said the bus had been carrying servicemen from Lakenheath airfield in the UK to Ramstein Airbase outside Frankfurt, where they were to be deployed overseas.

German police are in custody of the lone shooter, who is believed to be 21 year old Arid Uka, originally from Kosovo. Circumstances surrounding the incident remain unclear.

According to the Associated Press, who spoke to the suspect’s uncle in Mitrovica, Kosovo,  Arid Uka’s was born in Germany and worked at Frankfurt International Airport.  The uncle also said the 21 year old suspected shooter was a devout muslim and the grandson of a local religious leader.

The United States has been one of Kosovo’s strongest allies and was instrumental in the recognition its independence. Fighting between Kosovo’s majority ethnic Albanian population and Serbian nationalists drove hundreds of thousands from their homes in the late 1990‘s until a contested NATO military intervention eventually put an end to fighting in 1999 and led to the establishment of a United Nations administrative mission to the country.

The threat of homegrown Islamic terrorism has been an increasing fear in Germany over recent years. In 2007, two German born men were arrested for planning to set off a string of bomb targeting American tourists and interests in Germany, including Ramstein Airbase.