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Jill Serjeant in Los Angeles
US authorities on Friday identified the man who opened fire and killed two people at the ticket counter of Israel's El Al airlines at Los Angeles International Airport as a 41-year-old Egyptian native.
The attack, swiftly denounced by Israel as "terrorism," sowed panic and confusion as Americans marked the first Independence Day anniversary since the September 11 attacks.
Three people, including the gunman, were left dead and five were injured in the attack, which Israeli officials said bore all the signs of a terror attack, but which the FBI and police initially said appeared to be "an isolated incident."
The FBI issued a photo to television stations of a man they said was the shooter. They identified him as Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, 41, an Egyptian native and resident of the United States since 1992.
FBI sources said he was married with a child and had been living in an apartment complex in the city of Irvine, about 50 miles south of the airport. He was said to have two drivers' licenses, one of them stating his birthday as July 4.
The mayor of Los Angeles, James Hahn, said on Friday that the gunman appeared to be acting alone.
"We certainly don't have information yet though to make him part of any conspiracy. It does appear to be something that only involved him," Hahn said on NBC's Today show. "We do think it is an isolated incident, but the matter is still under investigation." Asked if Hadayet was a man with a grudge, Hahn said: "We don't know yet. To the victims it really doesn't matter. It's an act of terrorism any time someone takes a gun into an airport."
The FBI had spent Thursday saying there was no indication of a terrorist connection in the mid-morning airport shooting. But officials held back from announcing definite conclusions.
"I am not sure whether this confirms there was a terrorist connection," FBI spokesman Matt McLaughlin told reporters, who said evidence so far unearthed suggested the attack could be characterised as "a hate crime" under US law.
"There is a possibility that this may have been a terrorist act, but we don't want to jump to conclusions," McLaughlin added, saying Hadayet was not on an FBI watch list.
The assailant was identified on the basis of information found in his car at an airport parking lot some eight hours after Thursday's attack.
MAY HAVE TARGETED ISRAELIS FBI agent Ron Iden told a news conference earlier that the assailant was carrying .45 caliber and 9mm handguns and a knife when he opened fire. Iden said he was "confronted and subdued" by two El Al security guards and a private citizen.
One eyewitness said the gunman, who appeared calm, seemed to deliberately target Israelis when he opened fire in an area where passengers were waiting to check in for El Al flight 106, which was headed for Tel Aviv, via Toronto.
One eyewitness, Hakim Hafidh, described the gunman as "very, very calm" as he shot a woman behind the El Al ticket counter. Hafidh described the shooter as bespectacled, clean-shaven and not carrying any luggage.
Frenchman Herbe Fleuriot, 26, who witnessed the shooting, said the gunman appeared to be aiming "directly at Israelis or the people of El Al."
One of the dead was identified as Yakov Aminov, a 46-year-old year old Jew living in Los Angeles whose wife was expecting their sixth child. The other victim was a woman in her 20s described by El Al officials as a local ground staffer.
One of the El Al security guards was treated for knife wounds. An elderly woman was shot in the ankle, a man was treated for injuries sustained when he was pistol whipped and two people suffered heart trouble.
Twenty international flights were delayed after the shooting and 10,000 people had their journeys interrupted. Airport officials said flights were back to normal by midnight on Thursday.
Airport security around the nation has been tightened since the September 11 attacks on the United States, with particular emphasis on Los Angeles because was listed as a target in a failed plot by Algerian extremists to bomb buildings over the millennium. Most of the enhancements have been in passenger and baggage screening.
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