“Allah Akbar”, he opened fire, killed 12 US soldiers, Hasan to die by firing squad for defending ‘Taliban fighters’

Former U.S. Army Major and Palestinian-American psychiatrist Nidal Malik Hasan, 56, is set to be executed by an Army firing squad for the November 5, 2009 Fort Hood massacre in Texas, where he opened fire inside a Soldier Readiness Processing Center, killing 12 active-duty U.S. soldiers and one retired soldier working as a civilian and wounding 32 others.

Hasan shouted “Allahu Akbar” as he opened fire with a semiautomatic handgun.

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President Donald Trump approved the firing-squad execution following a recommendation from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, with the Secretary of the Army now responsible for setting the date and location.

During his 2013 court-martial, Hasan represented himself and acknowledged carrying out the shooting. He sought to argue that he acted in defense of Taliban fighters and said he wanted to stop American soldiers from deploying to Afghanistan and killing Muslims.

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If the execution goes ahead, Hasan will become the first U.S. service member executed by the military since 1961, when Army Pvt. John Bennett was hanged at Fort Leavenworth.

It would also be the first known U.S. Army execution by firing squad since World War II. The last known case was Pvt. Eddie Slovik, who was executed by firing squad in France in 1945 after being convicted of desertion.

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