A US SOLDIER was caught with a backpack of weapons and bomb components yesterday – and told investigators he planned to attack fellow troops in Texas.

Pfc Naser Jason Abdo was arrested at a traffic stop in Killeen, Texas by police, who later found “Islamic extremist literature”, gunpowder and components apparently intended for a timing and triggering device at his apartment.The local police chief told reporters Pfc Abdo planned a second attack at the nearby Fort Hood base, where a US Army major killed 13 people and wounded 29 in a shooting incident in 2009.

“Military personnel were a target” of Pfc Abdo, local police chief Dennis Baldwin said, according to CNN. Asked how close Abdo came to carrying out his alleged plans, he added: “I can tell you that we would probably be here today giving you a different briefing had he not been stopped.”

Abdo, who is Muslim, has previously written in an essay that the Fort Hood killings were “an act of aggression by a man and not by Islam.”

Earlier this year, Abdo went AWOL from a Kentucky army base after being charged with possessing child pornography. He was arrested after a tip-off from a staff member in a local gun shop, who became suspicious after Abdo bought three boxes of shotgun ammunition and six pounds of smokeless gunpowder. Guns Galore employee Greg Ebert said he called police because he “felt uncomfortable with his overall demeanor and the fact he didn’t know what the hell he was buying.”

Ebert is now in custody and is expected to face federal charges.

Video: Gun store worker tells of his experience

Additional reporting by AP