An Awol US soldier who allegedly planned an attack on the US Army base at Fort Hood in Texas is in custody, according to US media.An Awol US soldier who allegedly planned an attack on the US Army base at Fort Hood in Texas is in custody, according to US media.
The 21-year-old accused was arrested after buying guns near the base and was found with bomb-making materials, officials reportedly said.
The private first class allegedly told law enforcement officers he was at the base to "get even", US media reported.
Fort Hood was the scene of a gun rampage in 2009 that claimed 13 lives.
The man arrested on Wednesday in the city of Killeen, Texas, is currently being held on an unrelated child pornography charge, according to law enforcement officials.
A statement on the Fort Hood website acknowledged the soldier's arrest.
It said: "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."
FBI agent Eric Vasys told Reuters news agency that the detainee had been missing from work at the Fort Campbell military base in Kentucky, near Fort Hood.
The Army private is reportedly a Muslim American who had refused to deploy to Iraq.
He was arrested after police in Killeen received a call from the owner of a gun store about a suspicious man, a defence official told the CNN news network.
The accused allegedly also visited another store and bought a military uniform.
FBI agents reportedly searched the soldier's hotel room in Texas and found gunpowder, shotgun shells, four magazines and ammunition.
On 9 November 2009, Major Nidal Hasan, an Army psychiatrist who was due to deploy to Afghanistan, allegedly shot dead 12 soldiers and one civilian before police bullets wounded him.
He faces the death penalty if convicted.
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