AWOL soldier arrested near Fort Hood with bomb materials

The FBI says an AWOL soldier from Kentucky has been arrested in Killeen, Texas, near Fort Hood, with bomb-making materials in his possession. The FBI says Pfc. Naser Abdo faces federal charges.

Updated at 3:26 p.m. ET: Clerk Greg Ebert tells USA TODAY's Kevin Johnson that Abdo arrived at the gun store in a taxi cab Tuesday afternoon to buy six pounds of gun powder.

"First of all, the youngster arrives in a cab and wants to buy something he knows nothing about,'' Ebert said. "There was very little conversation. The kid was down right rude. I thought it would be a good thing to call it in to police.

"We're just grateful that the authorities responded as quickly as they did,'' Ebert said.

By Douglas Stanglin
USA TODAY

Updated at 2:14 p.m. ET: Greg Ebert, a Guns Galore clerk and retired police officer who tipped police to Abdo's suspicious behavior, says the soldier bought an unusually large amount of smokeless gunpowder, which can be used as an explosive, the Killeen Daily Herald reports.

Ebert says the soldier was rude to staff and seemed unfamiliar with what he was buying. The gun store clerk says Abdo bought six canisters of smokeless powder as well as three boxes of shotgun shells and an extra magazine for a pistol.

Updated at 1:30 p.m. ET: CNN's Barbara Starr quotes U.S. military officials as saying police found enough material in Abdo's motel room to make two bombs. She reports that the soldier told police he wanted to carry out attacks outside Fort Hood.

Starr reports that a backpack found in his room was packed with "jihadi literature."

Updated at 12:03 p.m. ET: The Associated Press reports that the FBI says the soldier will face federal charges after bomb-making materials were found in his motel room in Killeen, Texas, near Fort Hood. Agency spokesman Eric Vasys says firearms and "items that could be identified as bomb-making components, including gunpowder" were removed from Pfc. Naser Abdo's motel room.

Updated at 11:47 a.m. ET:  CBS News reports that the AWOL soldier, Pfc. Naser Abdo, was arrested after he allegedly inquired at a Killeen, Texas, gun store how to build explosives. A store employee became suspicious and notified police, CBS says.

Quoting a law enforcement official, CBS says that when police questioned Abdo at his motel, he allegedly made references to a plan to kill or injure people.

Updated at 11:14 a.m. ET: NBC News quotes two senior U.S. military officials as saying the soldier is under investigation for "possibly plotting an attack" on Fort Hood. NBC quotes officials as saying the suspect had applied for conscientious objector status based in part on the fact that he is a Muslim.

Updated at 11:03 a.m. ET: ABC News reports that an AWOL soldier is in custody in Killeen, Texas, after allegedly admitting to planning an attack on the nearby Fort Hood Army base where 13 people were killed in a shooting rampage in 2009.

ABC News, quoting law enforcement documents, says the soldier allegedly told law enforcement officers that he was at the Army base to "get even."

ABC reports that the man, identified only as a private first class, was arrested while trying to make a purchase at Guns Galore in Killeen, the same store where Maj. Nidal Hasan bought weapons that he allegedly used in the 2009 shootings.

ABC says the soldier, described as AWOL from Fort Campbell in Kentucky, had apparently bought an Army uniform with Fort Hood patches from a local surplus store.

Updated at 10:52 a.m. ET: Fort Hood's media center released this statement: "We are aware at this time that Killeen Police Department arrested a soldier yesterday. The incident leading to the arrest did not occur on Fort Hood, and the soldier was not a Fort Hood-based soldier."

Updated at 9:38 a.m. ET: KCEN-TV reports that explosives were found in the soldier's car. The TV station quotes Fort Hood officials as saying the soldier is not stationed there.

Original posting: An AWOL soldier described by police as armed and dangerous has been arrested inKilleen, Texas, near Fort Hood.

There are conflicting media reports surrounding the arrest.

Fox News, in its report, quotes an Army source as saying a U.S. military serviceman has been arrested in Killeen for allegedly planning another attack on the Army base.

KCEN-TV says an AWOL soldier was arrested in the town on a warrant on child porn charges. KCEN says police considered the soldier armed and dangerous.

It was not immediately clear if the soldier is the same one identified in the Fox report. KCEN did not mention any plot involving Fort Hood.

Fox News, quoting another unidentified source, reports that two other U.S. soldiers were arrested earlier today when they were found in possession of weapons and explosives.

Maj. Nidal Hasan, a U.S. Army military psychiatrist, is on trial, accused of killing 13 people and wounding 30 in the Fort Hood shooting in November 2009.