Esteban Santiago, who served in Iraq and was discharged last year, identified as Fort Lauderdale gunman who killed five.

Witnesses said the attacker shot his victims without a word and kept shooting until he ran out of ammunition [AP]

A US army veteran who complained that the government was controlling his mind drew a gun from his checked luggage on arrival at the Fort Lauderdale airport and opened fire in the baggage claim area on Friday, killing five people and wounding eight, authorities said.

The gunman was identified as 26-year-old Esteban Santiago of Anchorage, Alaska, who served in Iraq but was demoted and discharged last year for unsatisfactory performance. His brother said he had been receiving psychological treatment recently.

He was taken into custody after throwing his empty weapon down and lying spread-eagle on the ground, one witness said.

“People started kind of screaming and trying to get out of any door they could or hide under the chairs,” the witness, Mark Lea, told MSNBC. “He just kind of continued coming in, just randomly shooting at people, no rhyme or reason to it.”

A law enforcement official told The Associated Press news agency that Santiago had walked into the FBI office in Anchorage in November to say that the US government was controlling his mind and making him watch videos by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group.

Agents questioned an agitated and disjointed-sounding Santiago and then called the police, who took him for a mental health evaluation, according to the official, who was not authorised to discuss the case and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The official said Santiago did not appear intent on hurting anyone. Authorities said the motive for the attack was under investigation.

One witness said the attacker shot his victims without a word and kept shooting until he ran out of ammunition for his handgun, sending panicked travellers running out of the terminal and spilling onto the tarmac, baggage in hand.

“The guy must have been standing over me at one point. I could smell the gunpowder,” Bruce Hogan, a witness, said. Hogan said a woman next to him tried to get up and was shot in the head.

President Barack Obama was briefed by his Homeland Security adviser, the White House said. President-elect Donald Trump said that it is a “disgraceful situation that’s happening in our country and throughout the world” and that it was too soon to say whether it was a “terrorist” attack.

The airport was shut down, with incoming flights diverted and outgoing flights held on the ground.

It is legal for airline passengers to travel with guns and ammunition as long as the firearms are put in a checked bag – not a carry-on – and are unloaded and locked in a hard-sided container. Guns must be declared to the airline at check-in.

Santiago arrived in Fort Lauderdale after taking off from Anchorage aboard a Delta flight Thursday night, checking only one piece of luggage – his gun, said Jesse Davis, police chief at the Anchorage airport.

At Fort Lauderdale, “after he claimed his bag, he went into the bathroom and loaded the gun and started shooting. We don’t know why,” said Chip LaMarca, a Broward County commissioner who was briefed by investigators.

Santiago’s brother, Bryan, told AP that his brother had been receiving psychological treatment in Alaska. He said Santiago’s girlfriend alerted the family to the situation in recent months. Bryan Santiago said that he did not know what his brother was being treated for and that they never talked about it.

He said Esteban Santiago was born in New Jersey and moved to Puerto Rico when he was two. He was sent to Iraq in 2010 and spent a year there, according to Puerto Rico National Guard spokesman Major Paul Dahlen. He later joined the Alaska National Guard.

The Pentagon said Santiago had gone absent several times during his stint with the Alaska National Guard and was demoted – from specialist to private first class – and given a general discharge, which is lower than an honourable discharge.

The attack is likely to raise questions of whether aviation safety officials need to change the rules.

The attack also exposed another weak point in airport security: While travellers have to take off their shoes, put their carry-on luggage through X-ray machines and pass through metal detectors to reach the gates, many other sections of airports, such as ticket counters and baggage claim areas, are more lightly secured and more vulnerable to attack.

In 2013, a gunman with a grudge against the Transportation Security Administration shot and killed one of the agency’s screeners and wounded three others during a rampage at Los Angeles International Airport.

Last November, an airline worker was shot and killed near an employee car park at Oklahoma City’s airport, and in 2015 a machete-wielding man was shot dead after he attacked federal security officers at the New Orleans airport.

Gunfire heard in Daloa city hours after demobilised soldiers took control of Bouake, the nation’s second-largest city.

Ivory Coast descended into civil war after a disputed 2010 election [File: Legnan Koula/EPA]

by Al Jazeera

Gunfire has erupted at a military camp in the western Ivory Coast town of Daloa, a resident and an army source said, hours after demobilised soldiers took control of Bouake, the West African nation’s second-largest city.

Unrest was also erupted in the city of Korhogo, according to The Associated Press news agency.

Former soldiers seized weapons from police stations overnight on Thursday and took up positions at entry points into Bouake, military sources said.

The city was the seat of a rebellion that controlled the northern half of the country from 2002 until Ivory Coast was reunited following a civil war in 2011.

“It’s a mutiny by former fighters integrated into the army who are demanding bonuses of 5 million CFA francs [$8,000] each plus a house,” a soldier who asked to remain anonymous told AFP news agency.

Heavy shooting was heard at about 2am before later easing, residents said, and sporadic gunfire continued into the late morning.

“The city is under the control of former [soldiers],” an army officer told Reuters news agency.

“There are many of them at the north and south entrances to the city. We are on alert and await instructions from the hierarchy.”

An officer at the West African nation’s military headquarters in the commercial capital Abidjan said reinforcements had been sent to Bouake.

“The situation remains unstable and serious in Bouake… Some civilians and even active-duty soldiers have started to rally to them,” he said.

Al Jazeera’s Nicolas Haque, monitoring the situation from Dakar, Senegal, said the men taking over Bouake were former soldiers who supported the current government during the civil war that followed a disputed election in 2010.

“These are former soldiers that were part of an ECOWAS force trying to maintain peace in Liberia… Then they returned back to Ivory Coast where there was also a civil war and played a role to maintain peace and order in the country,” he said.

“Now they are saying they weren’t paid for their services. It seems that some negotiations are ongoing.”

Both Laurent Gbagbo, then the incumbent, and his rival Alassane Ouattara claimed victory in the 2010 election and the country quickly descended into turmoil.

Gbagbo was captured in April 2011 by forces loyal to Ouattara and delivered to the International Criminal Court charged with crimes against humanity. Ouattara was sworn in as president a month later.

Residents stayed inside and businesses in Bouake remained closed on Friday morning.

“The city is deserted. Men in balaklavas are patrolling the city on motorcycles or in cars. They aren’t attacking residents… They told us to stay at home,” said Ami Soro, a teacher living in Bouake.

Meanwhile a Daloa resident – speaking by telephone from a cocoa processing factory near the army camp – said the sound of weapons firing was continuing on Friday.

“There is gunfire at the second battalion [base] in Daloa. It’s young demobilised soldiers,” the resident said.

There was no clear sign of a link between the Bouake events and outbreak of shooting in Daloa, but the fact the rebels were also demobilised soldiers could indicate the uprising was spreading.

In November 2014, a strike by former rebels who had joined the army ground the country to a standstill after spreading to Abidjan from Bouake.

The nearly 9,000 strikers, who joined the army between 2009 and 2011, were demanding full payment of back pay and promotions. The government agreed to a financial settlement with the soldiers, who returned to barracks.