British bomb plotters jailed for life

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Five Britons have been jailed for life after being found guilty of plotting to carry out al Qaeda-inspired bomb attacks across Britain on targets ranging from a nightclub to a shopping mall.
The gang planned to use 600 kg (1,300 lb) of fertilizer to make explosives to be used in bombings in revenge for Britain's support for the United States in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, prosecutors said.
Details of the case -- previously kept secret to ensure a fair trial -- reveal previously undisclosed ties between the five men, the suicide bombers who attacked London's transport network in 2005, and other al-Qaeda linked cells.
Spies had seen Mohammed Sidique Khan, the suspected ringleader of the July 7 bombings, and accomplice Shehzad Tanweer with the men in the days leading up to their arrest, but discounted them because they were not involved in the plot. (Watch how British security forces encountered two men who went on to carry out suicide attacks )
Opposition parties and survivors of the bombings demanded a public inquiry into the July 7 attacks in response to the news.
Omar Khyam, Waheed Mahmood, Anthony Garcia, Jawad Akbar and Salahuddin Amin were convicted on Monday of conspiring with Canadian Mohammed Momin Khawaja to cause an explosion likely to endanger life.
Garcia and Khyam were found guilty of possessing an article for terrorism -- the fertilizer, and Khyam was also convicted of having aluminum powder -- an ingredient in explosives.
The men denied all charges.
'Ruthless misfits'
Sentencing the men, Judge Michael Astill said: "The sentences are for life. Release is not a foregone conclusion. Some or all of you may never be released. You are considered cruel, ruthless misfits by society."
Khyam's brother Shujah Mahmood and another man Nabeel Hussain were found not guilty of involvement in the plot.
During the UK's longest terrorism-related trial, lasting more than a year, prosecutors said the men had only to decide on a target when they were arrested in 2004 before carrying out what would have been the first homegrown attack by Islamist militants.
Police swooped on the suspects about 16 months before four British Islamists carried out suicide bombings on London's transport system in July 2005, killing 52 commuters.
The prosecution said the men had discussed targets including London's biggest nightclub -- the Ministry of Sound -- gas, water and electricity supplies, synagogues, trains, planes, and a large shopping center, Bluewater, east of the capital.
'Massive' loss of life
British police said the scale of their operation, codenamed "Crevice" was, at the time, the largest anti-terrorist action they had carried out.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, Head of the MPS Counter Terrorism Command and National Coordinator of Terrorism Investigations, said: "This case marked a new stage in our understanding of the threat posed by al Qaeda to this country.
"The investigation showed the links that these men had with al Qaeda in Pakistan.
"Most of them had attended a terrorist training camp in Pakistan in 2003, and were taught how to make explosives; some had been involved in extremism as far back as 2001.
"This was not a group of youthful idealists. They were trained, dedicated, ruthless terrorists who were obviously probably planning to carry out an attack against the British public.
"It was the first time since 9/11 that we in the UK had seen a group of British men intent on committing mass murder against their fellow citizens.
"While under surveillance they were heard discussing possible targets such as shopping centres, nightclubs, trains -- all heavily crowded places where the loss of life and destruction could have been massive.
"We now know that two of the people who attacked London on July 7, 2005 met with Khyam's group during the Operation Crevice surveillance operation. They were not part of that plot, and at that time were not a threat to public safety.
"In every case, and Operation Crevice was no exception, decisions have to be made as to who poses a threat to the public, and how resources should be used.
"It is a grave disappointment and a matter of great regret to everyone involved in counter-terrorism that we were not able to prevent the attack on 7th July 2005. What this case and others in the future will show is that we are dealing with a threat posed by interlinked networks of terrorists."
CNN International Security Producer Andrew Carey contributed to this report

Iran confirms it will attend summit on Iraq

Tehran, Iran (AP) -- Iran on Sunday confirmed it will attend this week's conference on Iraq in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheik, saying its delegation will be headed by its foreign minister.
The announcement will be widely welcomed as Iran, a Muslim Shiite-majority nation, has considerable influence among Iraqi Shiites, who now lead the Baghdad government. Iran is also suspected of having influential links with Shiite insurgent groups -- although it has repeatedly denied such ties.
"A high-ranking delegation headed by Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki will attend the Egyptian conference on Iraq," Foreign Ministy spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said in an interview with state television.
Hours earlier, the Iraqi prime minister's office had announced that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had called to say his country would send a delegation to the two-day conference, which begins on Thursday.
"The decision came after consultations between Iraqi officials and the Iranian president," Hosseini said in the telephone interview, which was played on state TV.
Until Sunday, Iran had been the only country not to have announced its participation in the conference. All of Iraq's other neighbors as well as Egypt, Bahrain and representatives of the big five U.N. Security Council members have agreed to attend.
Hosseini's announcement came shortly after a top Iranian envoy, Ali Larijani, arrived in Baghdad for talks on issues to be raised at the conference. Hosseini said earlier Sunday that Larijani was going to the Iraqi capital because Iran had "some questions and ambiguities about the agenda."
In Baghdad, an adviser in the prime minister's office, Sadiq al-Rikabi, confirmed Larijani would meet senior Iraqi officials. "It is a very important visit," he added.
Last week Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari came to Tehran to try to persuade the government to attend the conference, and told reporters Iran's participation was "vital."
Earlier Sunday, the head of the Iranian parliamentary committee on national security and foreign policy, Alaeddin Boroojerdi, said an Iranian delegation should go to Sharm el-Sheik.
"Iran should attend the conference, actively and powerfully," Boroojerdi was quoted as saying by IRNA.
Boroojerdi added that if Iran did not participate, it would lay itself open to criticism from the United States.
Iran has considerable influence among Shiite parties in Iraq, who now lead the country's government. It is also alleged to have links with Shiite insurgent groups, which is why numerous American politicians and analysts have urged Washington to engage Tehran in talks designed to curb the violence in Iraq.
U.S. President George W. Bush on Tuesday signaled that the conference could provide an opportunity for one-on-one talks between his administration and Iran, but he stressed that Tehran's nuclear program would not be on the table.
He said U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice might have bilateral conversations at the conference. "They could. They could," Bush told PBS' "The Charlie Rose Show.".
The United States cut diplomatic ties with Iran following the 1979 storming of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Although there have been periodic diplomatic contacts, the Bush administration has resisted pressure at home and abroad to engage Iran one-on-one in an effort to improve security in neighboring Iraq.
That policy began to change this spring. Although it is not inviting a broad conversation, the administration has repeatedly said it will not rule out sideline talks with either Iran or Syria at the conference May 3-4 at Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik.
Such contact would follow the model established last month when lower-level State Department officials had cordial discussions with Iranian and Syrian diplomats.
Bush said if a meeting occurs, Rice's message to the Iranians would be: "Don't send weapons in (to Iraq) that will end up hurting our troops, and help this young democracy survive."
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Turkey warned: Respect democracy

ANKARA, Turkey (CNN) -- The European Union and the U.S. have urged the Turkish army to respect the country's democracy after military chiefs voiced concerns over the current presidential election.
In a statement issued on Friday night, top soldiers warned the army could intervene if the election process threatened to undermine Turkey's secular system of government, The Associated Press reported.
"It should not be forgotten that the Turkish armed forces is one of the sides in this debate and the absolute defender of secularism," the military statement said.
"When necessary, they will display their attitudes and actions very clearly. No one should doubt that."
Friday's parliamentary vote to elect Turkey's next president has been marked by tensions between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamist Justice and Development Party and members of Turkey's secular establishment.
Lawmakers will vote again next week after the ruling party's candidate, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, failed to garner a clear win amid a boycott by the opposition Republican People's Party.
A government spokesman said Erdogan had spoken to Turkey's top general, Yasar Buyukanit, adding that the military statement was "not acceptable in a democratic order."
"The chief of the General Staff is answerable to the Prime Minister," Justice Minister Cemil Cicek said.
In Brussels, EU enlargement chief Olli Rehn said it was watching events in Ankara with concern, Reuters reported.
"It is important that the military leaves the remit of democracy to the democratically elected government and this is a test case if the Turkish armed forces respect democratic secularism and the democratic arrangement of civil-military relations," said Rehn.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Dan Fried called for democracy to be respected: "We hope and expect that the Turks will work out these political issues in their own way, in a way that's consistent with their secular democracy and constitutional provisions."
Turkish human rights campaigners also condemned the statement by the army, which has ousted four governments in the past 50 years -- most recently in 1997 when it overthrew an Islamist government in which Gul and Erdogan served.
"The statement has damaged our country's democracy and our state of law," said the Ankara-based Human Rights Association.
Mehmet Agar, leader of the center-right opposition True Path Party, told reporters: "Turkey's problems must be solved by civilian politics."
Emergency talks
Erdogan and Gul held emergency talks on Saturday following Gul's failure by 10 votes to secure the two-thirds parliamentary majority necessary to avoid a second round of voting.
Parliament members are slated to vote a second time next Wednesday. A two-thirds majority again will be needed to elect a president in the second round. If voting goes to a third round, then a simple majority will do.
Opposition lawmakers have asked Turkey's Constitutional Court to declare Friday's vote void and want an early general election instead, according to journalist Andrew Finkel in Ankara.
The probability that Gul, whose wife wears the traditional Muslim head scarf, will become the president of an already Islamic-rooted government -- possibly bolstering the role of religion in politics -- has caused unease in the vastly secular nation.
Part of the president's role includes veto power on legislation. With a record number of vetoed legislative bills, the country's current president, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, is widely viewed as fulfilling a checks-and-balances roll in the government, according to Finkel. Sezer leaves office May 16.
Commentator Oktay Eksi of the Hurriyet newspaper said the army's statement amounted to a "straightforward ultimatum," AP reported.
"It expresses concern over the fact that if Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul is elected, the presidential palace, which is considered the last bastion of secularism, will be handed over to a person who is anti-secular," Eksi said.
-- CNN's Talia Kayali in Atlanta and journalist Andrew Finkel in Ankara contributed to this report.
Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

Saudis say they've busted massive terror plot

(CNN) -- Saudi security forces have arrested scores of suspects in a terror plot involving attacks on senior officials and government oil, military and security installations, a Saudi intelligence official said Friday.
The official said that the nine months-long terror sweep netted 172 militants -- members of cells that make up the al Qaeda network the Saudis have been tracking for years.
Some of those arrested had trained abroad as pilots so they could fly aircraft in attacks on Saudi Arabia's oil fields, the Interior Ministry said Friday, according to The Associated Press.
The operation was launched with intelligence gleaned from the interrogations of suspects arrested in the unsuccessful February 2006 strike on an oil processing facility in the desert kingdom, an official told CNN. (Watch CNN's Nic Robertson explain terror plot )
That intelligence official said some of those arrested in the latest roundup had flight manuals, but "they have no real flight training capabilities."
The Interior Ministry did not say the militants would fly aircraft into oil refineries, but it said in a statement that some detainees had been "sent to other countries to study flying in preparation for using them to carry out terrorist attacks inside the kingdom," according to AP.
Interior Ministry spokesman Brig. Mansour al-Turki told AP in a phone call, "They had reached an advance stage of readiness and what remained only was to set the zero hour for their attacks.
"They had the personnel, the money, the arms. Almost all the elements for terror attacks were complete except for setting the zero hour for the attacks."
Al Qaeda claimed previous attack
Those arrested are Saudis and citizens of other Arab and African countries. Many of them are not soldiers and have no training in fighting.
The intelligence source said some of the confiscated weapons had been hidden in the desert for years.
In addition, the operation confiscated 20 million Saudi riyals ($5.3 million), the source said.
A U.S. intelligence official said the arrests show there is "a serious threat" and noted the Saudis have been pursuing terror suspects actively.
"Al Qaeda is intent on attacking in Saudi Arabia," the official said. He added that the arrests provide more information that al Qaeda is still interested in airliner plots. Asked whether the United States played a role in the sweep, the official declined to comment on the specific operation.
However, he said it's no secret the United States and Saudi Arabia work closely on terrorism.
Arabic-language media have been focused on the news all day.
Saudi TV and Al-Arabiya reported that the militants pledged allegiance to the leader of the main cell during a ritual in Mecca, the Saudi city and the holiest city of Islam. A sheikh appearing on Saudi TV referred to the pledge at the holy site as an affront to the religion.
Al-Arabiya said some of those detained were working for airline and oil companies and that the majority of non-Saudi detainees were Yemenis and some Nigerians. Al-Arabiya and Al-Jazeera reported that the militants wanted to use airplanes to attack refineries.
The announcement comes more than a year after an unsuccessful attack on the world's largest oil processing facility in Abqaiq, in eastern Saudi Arabia. Forty militant suspects were rounded up by Saudi authorities a month later.
Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia claimed responsibility for that attack, and one of al Qaeda's leaders was killed in a shootout three days after the failed strike.
Arabic-language network Al Arabiya said one of the seven terror cells seized was involved in the Abqaiq incident.
A principal goal of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has been to bring down the Saudi monarchy, and that has been one of the key motivational factors leading the Saudi authorities to keep tabs on the terror network. Bin Laden, a Saudi, has called for attacks on the kingdom's oil facilities.
Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

Girl freed from collapsed building

ISTANBUL, Turkey (CNN) -- Crowds of rescuers descended upon the debris of a multistory apartment building that collapsed Thursday in Istanbul, frantically trying to remove the crumbled concrete to find any survivors.
A CNN Turk reporter on the scene said rescuers have freed a little girl from the rubble, while rescuers could hear voices from the debris.
Construction workers were trying to tear down a building next door and authorities believe that is what caused the apartment complex to collapse around 6 p.m. (11 a.m. ET), Istanbul Mayor Kadir Topbas told CNN Turk.
At least two people have been confirmed trapped, he said.
Residents said they evacuated the building after hearing a crack in the roof, but some went back inside before the building collapsed, Istanbul Governor Muammer Guler told CNN Turk.
At least 17 ambulances had arrived on the scene, located in the Sirinevler neighborhood of Istanbul. The building was at least six stories high, and levels pancaked on top of each other.
A room with couches and a hanging light still attached to the ceiling could be seen amid the rubble, as people searched for anyone who might be trapped.
Two women holding children walked out of an adjacent building that remained intact, but was exposed by the collapse.
An older woman leaned against the wall, sobbing hysterically.
Poor construction standards have been blamed for previous building collapses, especially during earthquakes, which are common in Turkey because it lies on the Anatolia fault.
On February 21, two people died when an Istanbul apartment building collapsed.
Journalist Andrew Finkel and CNN's Talia Kayali contributed to this report

Taliban: Bin Laden plans Iraq strikes

(CNN) -- A Taliban military commander says Osama bin Laden helped plan the deadly suicide car bombing outside Bagram Air Base targeting a "very important American official," apparently referring to Vice President Dick Cheney.
Mullah Dadullah was interviewed by the Arab-language network al-Jazeera, which identified the official as Cheney. The network aired the comments on Wednesday, but did not say when the interview was done.
Dadullah said al Qaeda leader bin Laden also is involved in planning attacks in Iraq. He offered no proof for his statements.
The vice president was more than a half mile away from the site of the February attack in Afghanistan, which Afghan police said killed more than 15 people and wounded 20.
Secret Service agents briefly moved Cheney, who was unharmed, to a bomb shelter away from the base. He returned to his room when it was safe to do so. Cheney said he was told the base's main gate had been attacked.
Referring to bin Laden, Dadullah told the Arab-language network al-Jazeera, "Praise be to God he is still alive, and we have information about him and praise be to God he orchestrates plans in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
"You may remember the martyrdom mission in Bagram which targeted a very important American official. No Afghan can reach the Bagram base.
"This operation was a result of his blessed planning. He's the one who planned the details of this operation and guided us and the operation was successful," Dadullah said.
Bagram is about 40 miles (60 kilometers) north of the capital, Kabul.
On March 1, Dadullah told Britain's Channel Four that his forces were poised for a spring offensive against NATO-led coalition troops in Afghanistan, and that he was maintaining a regular line of communication with bin Laden.

Soldier: Army ordered me not to tell truth about Tillman

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The last soldier to see Army Ranger Pat Tillman alive, Spc. Bryan O'Neal, told lawmakers that he was warned by superiors not to divulge -- especially to the Tillman family -- that a fellow soldier killed Tillman.
O'Neal particularly wanted to tell fellow soldier Kevin Tillman, who was in the convoy traveling behind his brother at the time of the 2004 incident in Afghanistan.
"I wanted right off the bat to let the family know what had happened, especially Kevin, because I worked with him in a platoon and I knew that he and the family all needed to know what had happened," O'Neal testified. "I was quite appalled that when I was actually able to speak with Kevin, I was ordered not to tell him."
Asked who gave him the order, O'Neal replied that it came from his battalion commander, then-Lt. Col. Jeff Bailey.
"He basically just said ... 'Do not let Kevin know, that he's probably in a bad place knowing his brother's dead,' " O'Neal told House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman. "And he made it known I would get in trouble, sir, if I spoke with Kevin on it being fratricide."
The military instead released a "manufactured narrative" detailing how Pat Tillman died leading a courageous counterattack in an Afghan mountain pass, Kevin Tillman told the committee. (Watch Kevin Tillman accuse the military of lying )
Also Tuesday, former Pfc. Jessica Lynch told the House panel that the military lied about her capture.
Lynch testified that after her vehicle was attacked in Iraq in March 2003, she suffered a mangled spinal column, broken arm, crushed foot, shattered femur and even a sexual assault.
But it only added insult to injury, literally, when she returned to her parents' home in West Virginia, which "was under siege by media all repeating the story of the little girl 'Rambo' from the hills of West Virginia who went down fighting," Lynch said. (Watch Lynch set the record straight )
"It was not true," she said before gently chiding the military. "The truth is always more heroic than the hype."
Waxman, D-California, said the military "invented" tales about Tillman and Lynch. (Watch Lynch describe her bond with the Tillman family )
"The bare minimum we owe our soldiers and their families is the truth," Waxman said. "That didn't happen for two of the most famous soldiers in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars."
Brother calls tale 'calculated lies'
As the tide was turning in the U.S. battle against Afghan insurgents -- and as media outlets prepared to release reports on detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib in Iraq -- the military saw Pat Tillman's death as an "opportunity," Kevin Tillman told the panel.
Even after it became clear the report was bogus, the military clung to the "utter fiction" that Pat Tillman was killed by a member of his platoon who was following the rules of engagement, the brother said.
"Revealing that Pat's death was a fratricide would have been yet another political disaster during a month already swollen with disasters," Kevin Tillman said. "The facts needed to be suppressed. An alternative narrative had to be constructed, crucial evidence destroyed."
Tillman bristled at the military claim that the initial report was merely misleading.
Clearly resentful, he told the panel that writing a field report stating that his brother had been "transferred to an intensive care unit for continued CPR after most of his head had been taken off by multiple .556 rounds is not misleading."
"These are deliberate and calculated lies," he said.
Pat Tillman, who became a national hero after he gave up a lucrative contract with the NFL's Arizona Cardinals to join the Army's elite Rangers force, was awarded the Silver Star, the military's third-highest combat decoration, after the Army said he was killed leading a counterattack.
O'Neal testified that his superiors had him write a statement about the incident for Tillman's Silver Star commendation. He said the final version contained false statements about enemy fire that had been inserted by someone else.
Thomas F. Gimble, the Defense Department's acting inspector general, said that investigators could not determine who altered O'Neal's statement and that no attempt was made to examine the document's electronic history.
The Army later acknowledged that not only that Tillman was killed by his fellow soldiers, but that officers in Tillman's chain of command knew the counterattack story was bogus.
Still, Senior Chief Petty Officer Stephen White told the official heroism-under-fire story at a May 3, 2004, memorial service for Tillman.
"It's a horrible thing that happened with Pat," White, a Navy SEAL who was Tillman's friend, told the committee. "I'm the guy that told America how he died, basically, at that memorial. It was incorrect. That does not sit well with me."
Though the military blamed the erroneous report on an inadequate initial investigation, Mary Tillman told ESPN Radio last month that everyone involved in the shooting knew immediately that her son had been shot three times in the head by a member of his platoon.
"The Tillman family was kept in the dark for more than a month," Waxman said. "Evidence was destroyed. Witness statements were doctored. The Tillman family wants to know how all of this could've happened."
Lynch: Truth 'not always easy'
Lynch's testimony began with a recollection of the March 23, 2003, attack and her purported rescue nine days later.
As she and her fellow 11 soldiers drove through Nassiriya, Iraq, they noticed armed men standing in the streets and on rooftops. Three soldiers were quickly killed when a rocket-propelled grenade slammed into their vehicle, Lynch said.
The other eight died in the ensuing fighting or from injuries suffered during the fighting, she said. Lynch later woke up at Saddam Hussein General Hospital.
"When I awoke, I did not know where I was. I could not move. I could not call for help. I could not fight," she said, explaining she had a six-inch gash in her head and numerous broken bones. "The nurses at the hospital tried to soothe me, and they even tried unsuccessfully at one point to return me to Americans."
On April 1, U.S. troops came for her.
"A soldier came into the room. He tore the American flag from his uniform, and he handed it to me in my hand and he told me, 'We're American soldiers, and we're here to take you home.' And I looked at him and I said, 'Yes, I'm an American soldier, too,' " she recalled.
She was distraught to come home and find herself billed as a hero when two of her fellow soldiers had fought bravely until the firefight's end and another had died after picking up soldiers and removing them from harm's way.
"The American people are capable of determining their own ideals for heroes, and they don't need to be told elaborate lies," she said. "I had the good fortune to come home and to tell the truth. Many soldiers, like Pat Tillman, did not have that opportunity.
"The truth of war is not always easy. The truth is always more heroic than the hype," she said.
Lynch became a celebrity after U.S. troops filmed what they said was a daring raid on the hospital. Hospital staffers, however, said there were no Iraqi troops at the hospital when the purported rescue took place.
In the March 23, 2003, attack, Lynch, the Army claimed, was shot and stabbed during a fierce gun battle with Iraqi troops that left 11 of her comrades dead. It was later learned that Lynch never fired a shot during the firefight because her gun was jammed with sand.

U.S. military: Suicide bomb kills 9 U.S. soldiers in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Nine U.S. soldiers were killed Monday when a suicide car bomb struck near their patrol base in Diyala province, the U.S. military said in a statement.
Twenty other U.S. soldiers and one Iraqi civilian were wounded in the attack, the statement said.
In a separate incident, the military reported a U.S. soldier was killed in Muqtadya, northeast of Baghdad, by a roadside bomb.
Muqtadya is a city in Diyala province located about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northeast of the provincial capital of Baquba.
Also Monday, a suicide car bomber targeted a gathering of police vehicles in Baquba, killing six police officers, including a police general, a Diyala province police official said.
Dozens killed in insurgent attacks
Insurgents targeted Iraqis eating at restaurants, police patrolling the cities, a Kurdish political office and a Sunni mosque in a string of attacks in Iraq on Monday that left at least 51 people dead and 96 wounded, according to Iraqi officials. (Watch scenes of destruction from Baghdad bombs )
The deadliest attack happened when a suicide car bomber struck a restaurant in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, killing 20 civilians and wounding 35, an Interior Ministry official said.
A suicide car bomber struck a police checkpoint just outside Ramadi, killing four and wounding six civilians and police, a police official said.
In Baghdad, seven people were killed and 16 wounded when a suicide bomber detonated an explosive vest inside a restaurant near the Green Zone, Baghdad police said.
The restaurant was frequented by Baghdad police officers.
About a half-mile away from the restaurant, two parked car bombs exploded near Iran's embassy within hours of each other, police said.
Insurgents also bombed a Sunni mosque in the southwestern Baghdad neighborhood of Baya'a. They killed the mosque's guard to gain entry then rigged the mosque with explosives. No one was injured but the al-Kawthar mosque was damaged, an Interior Ministry official said.
A suicide car bomb detonated outside the Kurdish Democratic Party office in Tal Uskuf, killing at least 10 people and wounding 20, according to KDP official Abdul Ghani Yahya.
Iraqis protest security wall
Despite the daily attacks across Iraq, thousands of Iraqis took to the streets Monday to protest a concrete wall surrounding Adhamiya, a Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad.
The U.S. and Iraqi militaries say the wall is a temporary structure to prevent insurgent attacks.
But many Baghdad residents fear walls will exacerbate the sectarian divide that is fueling the insurgency in the Iraqi capital. (Watch why the wall was controversial )
"The aim of this wall is to isolate Adhamiya," one resident told CNN. "It's a step we think that is not for the good of the people, but it's to isolate them like Falluja and other Sunni cities."
Police estimated 7,000 Iraqis peacefully took to the street to voice their disapproval with the wall around Adhamiya, a Sunni enclave surrounded by Shiite neighborhoods.
Video showed the streets crowded with demonstrators, some carrying banners that read in English, "No to the sectarian barrier."
While it is a known insurgent stronghold, Adhamiya has also been the target of Shiite death squads.
On Sunday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki expressed outrage, saying "the construction will stop."
In response, the U.S. military issued a statement Monday saying "the construction of the wall is under review" and vowing to "coordinate with the Iraq government to establish effective appropriate security measures."
But at a joint news conference later Monday, spokesmen for the U.S. and Iraqi militaries said there are no plans to stop erecting the security barriers, which they stressed are temporary.
The spokesman for the Baghdad security plan, Brig. Gen. Qassim Atta said al-Maliki was responding to "groundless" media reports that a permanent wall -- 40 feet (12 meters) high and 3 miles (5 kilometers) long -- is being constructed.
"The prime minister is in agreement with the work of the security forces and the issue of security barriers," Atta said at the news conference in Baghdad. "We will continue to set up these barriers in Adhamiya and other areas."
A combination of sand barriers, trenches, barbed wire and concrete barriers will be put in place temporarily to secure certain areas within the 10 Baghdad security districts, Atta said. They will be moved after each area is secure, he said.
"We have noticed a big drop in terrorist attacks in areas where we already set up these security barriers," he said.
The U.S. and Iraqi militaries have started setting up security barriers in Baladiyat, Zafaraniya, al-Shu'la, Baya'a, Adhamiya, and the outskirts of Sadr City, Atta said.
"It's a fluid situation and none of these barriers that we're erecting are permanent," U.S. military spokesman Rear Adm. Mark Fox said during Monday's news conference. "We will be able to employ them as necessary."
At a news conference in Cairo on Sunday, al-Maliki said that his previous comments expressed his "fear (that) this wall might have repercussions, which remind us of other walls we reject."
He was apparently referring to the wall Israel constructed in the West Bank, and to the wall that divided Berlin during the Cold War.
CNN's Jomana Karadsheh and Arwa Damon contributed to this report.

Sarkozy, Royal in presidential runoff

PARIS, France (CNN) -- Right-wing candidate Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist rival Segolene Royal will face each other in a presidential run-off after they came through a first-round vote on Sunday, preliminary results showed.
According to numbers from the French Interior Ministry, Sarkozy earned 31.11 percent of the votes, while Royal won 25.83 percent.
Turnout was the highest in more than 40 years, and appeared to fall just short of the record for first-round voting set in 1965.
Because of the close margin, they will face a run-off on May 6.
Centrist Francois Bayrou, one of four main contenders, won 18.55 percent of the votes while far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen took 10.51 percent, according to the ministry.
Royal will become France's first woman president if she wins.
Official results from the election that drew a huge turnout were expected later on Sunday evening.
An IPSOS opinion poll released late on Sunday suggested Sarkozy would win 54 percent of votes in the second round and Royal would secure 46 percent.
Sarkozy told cheering supporters on he wanted to rally the French people behind a "new dream." (Watch Sarkozy talking about his vision )
"My dear compatriots, I want only one thing: to gather the French people around a new French dream," he told supporters at his UMP party.
France must now choose between two visions of society in the second round, Sarkozy said.
"By placing me in the lead and Madame Royal in second position, (voters) clearly marked their wish to have a definitive debate on two ideas of the nation, two projects of society, two value systems," he said.
Sarkozy's dream was one of "a fraternal republic where no-one will be afraid."
"I want to say to all the French who are afraid, that I want to protect them against violence, against delinquency, against unfair competition, against outsourcing," the former interior minister said.
Royal called for voters to rally round her, promising to bring France change without upheaval. (Watch Royal's speech after the result was announced )
"I call on all those who ... believe it is possible to reform France without brutalizing it, who want a triumph of human values over the stock market, who want an end to the painful rise of insecurity and precariousness, to come together," she told a rally in central-western France.
"Many of us -- regardless of the first round -- do not want a France ruled by the law of the strongest or the most brutal, sewn-up by money interests, where all powers are concentrated in the same few hands.
"I reach out to all those who believe it is not only possible but urgent to break with a system that is no longer working," Royal said.
Unprecedented interest
The vote has generated unprecedented interest in France, at a time when the country has been beset by economic and social problems.
With incumbent Jacques Chirac standing down after 12 years in office, candidates have tried to assert their credentials as part of a new generation of politicians eager to reshape the troubled country's traditional ways of life.
But observers say the main contenders have often struggled to define policies setting them apart from their rivals despite dynamic campaigning.
Interior Ministry figures showed that 84.48 percent of France's 40 million voters cast ballots. Such a figure would near the record of 84.8 percent set for a first round in 1965, according to The Associated Press.
Observers say the next president will inherit a nation on the brink of an economic crisis, struggling with national identity and coping with a poverty-stricken immigrant community still reeling from the 2005 youth riots.
In Sarkozy and Royal, voters face a clear choice between a right-wing program based on free-market ideas and a left-winger promising to safeguard the country's "social model."
Also running in the election were three Trotskyites, a Communist, a Green and anti-capitalist campaigner Jose Bove. The other two are a hunters' rights candidate and the Catholic nationalist Philippe de Villiers.
CNN correspondent Jim Bittermann said the campaign had been fierce compared to previous presidential races.
"It has been a really intense campaign, probably more so than usual," he said.
Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

Blue Angels jet crashes during air show, killing aviator

(CNN) -- A jet flying in formation with the U.S. Navy Blue Angels precision flying team crashed into a Beaufort, South Carolina, neighborhood, causing an "enormous fireball" during an air show, authorities said.
The Navy aviator was killed, Beaufort County Coroner Curt Copeland said. The F/A-18's pilot is the only known fatality. The aviator's name is being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
William Winn, the county emergency management director, told The Associated Press that eight people on the ground were injured. The extent of their injuries was not known.
Officials announced that Sunday's scheduled air show will go on but that the Blue Angels will not take part.
A Navy statement said the aviator had been on the team for two years -- and it was his first as a demonstration pilot. The accident was under investigation, the statement said.
Fred Yelinek told CNN he saw the crash occur about a mile from Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, which was holding the two-day show. He said the jet came down about 100 yards from him with an "earth-shattering rumble."
Yelinek said the jet struck a stand of pine trees, and pieces of the plane hit homes, but he didn't see any catch fire. The pieces were "as big as a hand but no larger," he said. (Watch Yelinek describe how the plane struck trees )
The Associated Press described the crash site as a neighborhood of small houses and trailers.
Photos from the site showed a street littered with debris, some of it resembling blown-out tires, and nearby trees on fire with smoke trailing away. There were no large pieces of debris.
Pieces of a tree and the plane crashed into the home of a neighbor, Yelinek said, but she was uninjured. Pieces also hit other houses and smashed car windshields, he said.
"Most people were very shaken but unhurt," the witness said.
"I was working on a pump in the yard across the street from the initial impact, and I heard the Blue Angeles go over ... in a full, tight formation," Yelinek said.
"And then, four or five minutes later, I hear them coming again, expecting to see pretty much the same thing. But I didn't hear any strange noises. And then it was the crashing sound of pieces of the airplane coming through the trees in the yard across the street."
"And then a huge fireball, maybe 200, 300 yards further on down. The debris started from the first impact with a pine tree, which was maybe 100 yards from my location."
"Part of the tree and the debris went through a house in that yard, then the main body of the airplane continued on about 300 more yards and hit about one city block further down at the intersection of Shanklin and Pine Grove roads.
"There's a lot of houses on all four corners of that intersection. And there was a lot of fire at that intersection, and continuing thereafter."
Another witness, Gerald Popp, said the six jets had been flying for about five minutes before one of them turned south, toward the Broad River.
"I saw him go down lower than the trees, and next I saw a big black cloud of smoke," said Popp, who also lives in Beaufort.
Pam and Bill Edwards said they were watching the air show from the media stand when they realized something was terribly wrong.
"It was right at the end of the air show ... we counted four planes landing, and there was one circling in that smoky area right over the crash site," Bill Edwards said. "I looked around the sky, and there was nothing else there. Then we saw the emergency helicopter go up, and we automatically assumed the worst at that point."
Justin Cooke, an off-duty air traffic controller at the base, told CNN that some of the runways used in the air show are near military base housing, which gets constant flyovers from the base's jets. But he said he didn't think the jet crashed into the base housing area.
"From my understanding, northeast of base housing is a residential area," Cooke said.
Although he was unable to confirm the jet had struck there, he said "one of my Marines said the power was out temporarily, and stuff had knocked off their walls from the impact" of the crash.
While the cause of the crash is unknown, he mentioned that birds pose a frequent problem to jets flying in the area, and can cause a crash.
"On an F-18, you have two motors, and if they take [a bird] in the engine, it could cause engine failure and shut that down," he said. He said the plane is capable of flying in excess of 450 mph.
The aerobatic maneuvers were to be repeated Sunday as part of the Low Country Blues Festival. The show also featured other aerial demonstration teams and civilian and military aircraft displays.
CNN meteorologists said the weather in Beaufort, which is near Savannah, was clear.
The last crash involving the Blue Angels was in 1999 in south Georgia. Two aviators were killed when their F/A-18 jet crashed while trying to land during a training flight.

Bells toll in honor of Virginia massacre victims

BLACKSBURG, Virginia (CNN) -- Four days after the deadliest shooting on a U.S. college campus, Americans remembered victims of the Virginia Tech massacre with moments of silence and the tolling of bells.
Crowds stopped what they were doing Friday to gather silently throughout the university grounds. Forming a sea of school colors, orange and maroon, most mourners stood and listened solemnly, some embraced each other.
In addition to the day of mourning, which was declared by Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, school alumni have organized a "Hokie Hope" day, asking all alumni, students and friends of the school to wear the university's colors.
A salesperson at the Christianburg, Virginia, Wal-Mart said Hokie merchandise has been in high demand this week, as shipments continued to arrive at the store.
Amid the remembrances, Virginia Tech President Charles Steger announced that classes will resume on Monday.
"We will move forward in a way that will honor the memory of those we have lost," said Steger in a letter to students.
At noon, mourners will pause for a bell-ringing and a moment of silence across the university grounds, including the Drill Field, where a makeshift memorial honors the 32 students and faculty who were killed. Mourners continued to gathered at the memorial Friday morning.
Some of them wrote messages of hope, love and support on large boards that had been moved beneath tents due to Thursday's rain. Nearby, a handful of students relit candles. (Honoring the victims)
Reading the messages on the boards moved many visitors to tears.
"I'm glad I hugged you at our last practice," read one message to slain student Reema Samaha, a dancer. (Watch how the memorial has become the campus' center of gravity )
Another victim, engineering professor Kevin Granata, will be remembered at a public memorial service at 2 p.m. ET at the Blacksburg Presbyterian Church.
Granata was the father of three children: two sons, ages 13 and 12, and a daughter, 10. (Read how Granata was a top biomechanics researcher working on cerebral palsy)
Source: Cho fired more than 100 rounds
A law enforcement official familiar with the investigation confirmed Friday that Cho Seung-Hui, who police blame for the massacre, fired more than 100 shots during his rampage. Most victims were shot at least three times, the official said. Cho is believed to have used two pistols during the attack. The official said Cho used "a lot" of clips of ammunition during the shootings.
A woman who was wounded in the attack left Montgomery Regional Hospital on Thursday night, leaving a total of eight other gunshot victims recovering in three area medical facilities. The hospital expects to release one or two more patients later Friday or early Saturday, a spokesman said.
Kaine has invited communities across the nation to organize their own ceremonies Friday to remember those killed in the nation's worst shooting spree.
Memorial services were scheduled in cities across the nation, including Arlington, Texas; Seattle, Washington; Georgetown, Kentucky; Virginia Beach, Virginia; and Washington.
Candlelight vigils were set for Santa Monica Beach, California; Vancouver, Washington; Middletown, Pennsylvania; Charleston, West Virginia; and St. Mary's City, Maryland.
Bells will toll to honor the victims across the states of Georgia and Colorado at 12 p.m. ET, and residents are being asked to observe a moment of silence.
The observances coincided with Friday's eighth anniversary of the massacre by two students at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. (Read more about how Colorado plans to join Friday's day of mourning)
For some, sorrow was mixed with anger, not only at Cho for his rampage and his multimedia screed, but also at the media for airing his last recorded words and images.
News outlets were urged to focus on the victims of the shootings rather than the twisted ramblings of the man who gunned them down before killing himself as police closed in.
Peter Read, father of victim Mary Read, pleaded for media outlets to stop broadcasting the images that Cho mailed between the day's two shooting incidents.
"It's a second assault on us," he said. "It's a second assault on our children. Please put the focus back where it belongs: on these wonderful, vibrant, young human beings who were bringing so much to this world." (Watch how the airing of Cho's messages sparked an uproar )
Great-aunt calls Cho 'idiot'
In 2005, Cho was declared mentally ill by a Virginia special justice, who found he was "an imminent danger" to himself, a court document states. (Read more about "the kid who never spoke")
Cho's great-aunt, Kim Yang-soon, described Cho as "very cold" and said her niece was constantly worried about him, according to a translation from The Associated Press.
"Who would have known he would cause such trouble, the idiot," Kim said from her home in South Korea.
Cho's family left South Korea when he was 8 years old, settling in Centreville, Virginia. Some there said that Cho was picked on in his younger years, but that he wasn't alone in that respect.
"We called him the trombone kid, because he would just walk with his trombone all alone," Centreville resident John Williams said, adding that Cho was so quiet that he was an "easy target."
But experts said that Cho's messages provide evidence of a much bigger problem.
"The grandiosity, the persecutory beliefs that he expressed certainly are consistent with psychosis that we usually will see as part of a mental illness," said Dr. Todd Cox of Johns Hopkins University. (Watch why warning signs don't always predict behavior )
In the messages he mailed to NBC, Cho referred to the two students responsible for the Columbine killings in 1999 as "martyrs."
Law enforcement agencies across the nation have received about a dozen copycat threats to schools across the country in the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre, according to the FBI.
The university said Thursday that it will award posthumous degrees to the slain students at the scheduled May 11 commencement.
Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

Nigeria: 25 militants killed in fighting

KANO, Nigeria (Reuters) -- Nigerian security forces killed 25 Islamic militants in an all-day battle on the outskirts of the northern city of Kano on Wednesday, authorities said.
Troops surrounded the militants in the Panshekara district of the city early on Wednesday after they had burned a police station and killed 13 officers in an ambush a day earlier. (Full story)
Sustained bursts of automatic gunfire were audible at a military checkpoint on the edge of the Panshekara district. A fighter plane swooped over the area repeatedly and a column of black smoke rose into the sky.
"The army has discovered the enclave of militants and we are pushing them back. We have killed many of the militants," army Brig. Gen. Kenneth Agbola Vigo said, adding that he expected to complete the operation by nightfall.
A senior police officer said 25 militants were killed.
"In total you have 25 militants killed: 22 in the battle zone and three shot by police outside the perimeter," the officer said, asking not to be named.
The three in the second group were killed after they shot at police from a moving car. Officers recovered 10 million naira ($78,000) from the car, the officer added.
Thousands of residents fled from the area.
The police officer said some soldiers had also been killed in the battle, but there was no official confirmation.
The heavily armed militants burned down a police station on Tuesday, wounding two officers, and then ambushed and killed 13 police who came to investigate.
Residents said the militants were avenging the assassination of a hardline Muslim cleric at a mosque in Kano on Friday, which they blamed on the government.
The Secretary-General of Jama'atu Nasril Islam, Nigeria's largest Muslim organization, said the militants, who use names such as "Taliban" and "al Qaeda", were not a recognized group.
"They use Islamic names to scare people and show their anger. Police should not be a target," Abdulkadir Orire said.
Kano has seen several bouts of ethnic and religious bloodshed in the past few years, and tensions are running high in the city of 6 million because of flawed state elections held on Saturday and a presidential vote on April 21.
It was not clear if the latest violence was election-related.
The attack was the second on a police station in northern Nigeria's biggest city in a week. Attackers killed a divisional police officer in the Sharada district last week, but the motive for that incident was not clear.
Kano is one of 12 northern Nigerian states which introduced sharia law in 2000. The move by state governors alienated Christian minorities and sparked violence.
Southern Nigeria is predominantly Christian.
Copyright 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Professor: Shooter's writing dripped with anger

BLACKSBURG, Virginia (CNN) -- A year and a half before before Cho Seung-Hui went on a deadly shooting spree on the campus of Virginia Tech, a professor was so concerned about his anger that she took him out of another teacher's creative writing class and taught him one-on-one.
The former chairwoman of Virginia Tech's English department, Lucinda Roy, said the anger Cho expressed was palpable if not explicit.
Cho, an English major, never wrote about guns or killing people,, she said. But his writing was disturbing enough that she went to police and other university officials to seek help. (Watch the professor tell how her student frightened her )
"The threats seemed to be underneath the surface," she said. "They were not explicit and that was the difficulty the police had."
"My argument was that he seemed so disturbed that we needed to do something about this."
Without a clear threat, nothing could be done, however, and Roy made the decision to instruct him away from other students.
"I just felt I was between a rock and a hard place," she said. "It seemed the only alternative was to send him back to the classroom, and I wouldn't do it."
While teaching Cho one-on-one, Roy said she "made it clear that that kind of writing was unacceptable and he needed to write in another voice."
She also said that she encouraged Cho to go to counseling, and believed that he may have "gotten tired of hearing it" and begun to tell her he had been going when, perhaps, he had not.
Cho was an intelligent student, Roy said, but he left students and professors alike unnerved in his presence.
Police say Cho killed at least 30 people and wounded 17 others before killing himself in Norris Hall, an engineering classroom building, Monday.
According to a search warrant, police found a note in Norris Hall containing a bomb threat directed at engineering buildings on the campus. During a three-week period before the shootings, the university received two other bomb threat notes, and police are investigating to see if those threats were related to the shooting. (Watch how the note threatens engineering buildings)
It's also believed the 23-year-old student killed two other people earlier that day in a dormitory on campus. (Watch how some are asking why warnings weren't issued sooner )
Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum said ballistics tests show that one of the two guns recovered at Norris Hall was used at the dorm. (Watch what police were looking for in Cho's room )
'Twisted, macabre violence'
Ian MacFarlane, who said he had class with Cho, called two plays Cho wrote "very graphic" and "extremely disturbing."
MacFarlane provided a copy of the writings to AOL where he is an employee. (Read MacFarlane's blog and the two plays)
"It was like something out of a nightmare," MacFarlane wrote in a blog. "The plays had really twisted, macabre violence that used weapons I wouldn't have even thought of.
"Before Cho got to class that day, we students were talking to each other with serious worry about whether he could be a school shooter."
Cho paid $571 for a 9 mm Glock 19 pistol just over a month ago, the owner of Roanoke Firearms told CNN Tuesday. He also used a .22-caliber Walther pistol in the attack, police said. (Interactive: The weapons used in the shootings)
John Markell said Cho was very low-key when he purchased the Glock and 50 rounds of ammunition with a credit card in an "unremarkable" purchase.
Cho presented three forms of identification and did not say why he wanted the gun, Markell said. (Watch how quickly these guns can be fired, reloaded )
State police conducted an instant background check that probably took about a minute, the store owner said.
Markell said he was shocked when three agents from the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms arrived at his store Monday with the receipt for the weapon.
Shooter's note
Cho did not leave a suicide note, according to Col. Steve Flaherty, superintendent of the Virginia State Police. (Watch Flaherty describe the scene after the shootings )
However, ABC News reported that other law enforcement sources said Cho did leave some kind of note in his dorm room. It contained an explanation of his actions and states, "You caused me to do this," ABC News reported.
It also railed against "rich kids," "debauchery" and "deceitful charlatans" on campus, according to the Chicago Tribune. (Note indicates Cho was angry at "rich kids")
Authorities are still investigating whether Cho had any accomplices in planning or executing Monday's rampage, Flaherty said.
Cho, a resident alien from South Korea, lived at the university's Harper Hall, Flinchum said.
"He was a loner, and we're having difficulty finding information about him," said Larry Hincker, associate vice president for university relations.
Governor not ready to talk gun control
Tuesday, after an emotional convocation service on campus attended by President Bush, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine announced that at the university's request, he was appointing an independent panel to review Monday's tragedy.
"It is a very important thing, and a standard thing, that a thorough after-action review be done, both on the event and the response, so that we can learn all we
However, Kaine said he wasn't interested in arguments about gun control.
"People who want to take this within 24 hours of the event and make it their political hobby horse to ride, I've got nothing but loathing for them," Kaine said at a Tuesday evening news conference.
"To those who want to try to make this into some little crusade, I say: Take that elsewhere. Let this community deal with grieving individuals and be sensitive to those needs."
As questions continued to arise about how police reacted to the first shooting at the dorm, university President Charles Steger on Tuesday defended the response, saying police believed it to be "a domestic fight, perhaps a murder-suicide" that was contained to one dorm room.
Police cordoned off the 895-student West Ambler Johnston dorm and all residents were told about the shooting as police looked for witnesses, Steger said.
Authorities were still investigating what they believed was an "isolated incident" when the slaughter started at Norris Hall.
"I don't think anyone could have predicted that another event was going to take place two hours later," Steger said, adding that it would've been difficult to warn every student because most were off campus at the time. (Watch a student's recording of police responding to loud bangs )

Police: Virginia Tech shooter an English major, 23

BLACKSBURG, Virginia (CNN) -- The gunman who killed 30 people at Virginia Tech's Norris Hall before turning the gun on himself was student Cho Seung-hui, university police Chief Wendell Flinchum said Tuesday.
University officials said they were still trying to determine whether Cho was responsible for an earlier shooting at a dormitory that left two dead.
However, Flinchum said ballistics tests show that one of the two guns recovered at Norris Hall was used at Norris and at the dorm, both located on the 26,000-student campus. (Watch police disclose new information about the shooter )
Authorities are still investigating whether Cho had any accomplices in planning or executing Monday's rampage, Col. Steven Flaherty of the Virginia State Police said.
"It certainly is reasonable for us to assume that Cho was the shooter in both places, but we don't have the evidence to take us there at this particular point in time," Flaherty said.
Cho, a 23-year-old South Korean and resident alien, lived at the university's Harper Hall, Flinchum said. He was an English major, the chief said.
Cho was a loner and authorities are having a hard time finding information about him, said Larry Hincker, associate vice president for university relations.
A department of Homeland Security official said Cho came to the United States in 1992, through Detroit, Michigan. He had lawful permanent residence, via his parents, and renewed his green card in October 2003, the official said.
His residence was listed as Centreville, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C.
The university and police are still in the process of releasing the names of the 32 people killed in Monday's shootings. (Watch how some are asking why warnings weren't issued sooner )
"What went on during that incident certainly caused tremendous chaos and panic in Norris Hall," Flaherty said, describing how victims were found in four classrooms and in the stairwell of the school's engineering science and mechanics building.
Doctor recalls 'amazing' injuries
A doctor at a Blacksburg hospital described the injuries he saw Monday as "amazing" and the shooter as "brutal."
"There wasn't a shooting victim that didn't have less than three bullet wounds in them," said Dr. Joseph Cacioppo of Montgomery Regional Hospital.
Even among the less serious injuries, Cacioppo said, "we saw one patient that had a bullet wound to the wrist, one to the elbow and one to the thigh. We had another one with a bullet wound to the abdomen, one to the chest and one to the head."
A source familiar with the investigation said the weapons found at Norris were a Walther .22-caliber semi-automatic and a 9 mm Glock -- both with the serial numbers filed off. (Watch how quickly these guns can be fired, reloaded )
As questions continued to arise about how police reacted to the first shooting at the dorm, Steger on Tuesday defended the response, saying police believed it to be "a domestic fight, perhaps a murder-suicide" that was contained to one dorm room.
Police cordoned off the 895-student West Ambler Johnston dorm and all residents were told about the shooting as police looked for witnesses, Steger said.
Authorities were still investigating what they believed was an "isolated incident" when the slaughter occurred at Norris Hall.
"I don't think anyone could have predicted that another event was going to take place two hours later," Steger said, adding that it would've been difficult to warn every student because most were off campus at the time. (Watch a student's recording of police responding to loud bangs )
Steger told reporters Monday that when police responded to Norris Hall they found the front doors chained shut. The gunfire had stopped by the time they reached the second floor, he said.
The gunman killed 31 people, including himself, and wounded 15 in Norris Hall classrooms.
Student: Gunman 'seemed very thorough'
The gunman was dressed "almost like a Boy Scout" and wore a black ammunition vest, said a student who survived by pretending to lie dead on a classroom floor.
"He just stepped within five feet of the door and just started firing," said Erin Sheehan. "He seemed very thorough about it, getting almost everyone down, I pretended to be dead." (Watch student describe surviving by playing dead )
The shooter, who remained quiet throughout the rampage, came back 30 seconds after the first round of gunfire and Sheehan and her classmates tried to barricade the door with their bodies, she said.
After the shooter couldn't get in, he began firing through the door, Sheehan said. Of the 25 students in her German class, Sheehan was one of four able to walk out on her own when police arrived.
As of midday Tuesday, officials were still releasing the names of victims, which include a marching band member from Georgia and an Israeli Holocaust survivor who headed the engineering and science department. (Full story)
The university has scheduled a convocation for 2 p.m. ET Tuesday. President Bush and the first lady are scheduled to attend.
Classes have been canceled for the rest of the week, and Norris Hall will be closed for the remainder of the semester, Steger said. Student Emily Alderman said students were sending out instant messages urging each other to wear their Virginia Tech Hokie gear in a sign of unity.
There have been two bomb threats at the university this month, the latest of which came Friday. Flinchum said Tuesday they were unrelated to the shootings. (Watch gunfire on the campus )
Last August, the first day of class was cut short at Virginia Tech by a manhunt for an escaped prisoner accused of killing a Blacksburg hospital security guard and a sheriff's deputy.
Before Monday, the deadliest mass shooting in the United States occurred in 1991, when George Hennard drove a pickup truck into a Killeen, Texas, cafeteria and fatally shot 23 people, before shooting and killing himself.

Witness survives by pretending to be dead

(CNN) -- A gunman who killed at least 30 people at one of two shootings on the campus of Virginia Tech Monday was dressed "almost like a Boy Scout," said a woman who survived by pretending to lie dead on a classroom floor.
"He just stepped within five feet of the door and just started firing," said Erin Sheehan who was in one of the Norris Hall classrooms where the second shooting incident took place.
Sheehan described the gunman -- who later shot and killed himself according to police -- as a young man wearing a short-sleeved tan shirt and black ammunition vest.
"He seemed very thorough about it -- getting almost everyone down -- I pretended to be dead," she said. (Student survives by playing dead )
"He was very silent," said Sheehan, one of only four students in her 25-student German class who were not shot.
The gunman left for about 30 seconds, but returned because "I guess he heard us still talking."
"We forced ourselves against the door so he couldn't come in again, because the door would not lock," Sheehan said.
The man tried three more times to force his way in then began firing through the door, she said.
Student Tiffany Otey was taking a test inside Norris Hall when the shooting began. She and about 20 other people took refuge behind a locked door in a teacher's office. Police officers with bulletproof vests and machine guns were in the area.(Watch a student's recording of police responding to loud bangs )
"They were telling us to put our hands above our head and if we didn't cooperate and put our hands above our heads they would shoot," Otey said. "I guess they were afraid, like us -- like the shooter was going to be among one of us." (Watch students react to shooting )
Some students leaped from windows to escape.
"We heard some loud banging, and we weren't sure if it was construction or not. We heard people screaming, so everybody in the class huddled in the back," said Josh Wargo, a student who was in Norris Hall. "We were going to go out the front door, and someone opened the door, and it sound like the shots were being fired down the hallway. We all jumped out of the window."
The shooter attacked more than one classroom at Norris Hall, according to police and the death total there makes it the deadliest shooting in U.S. history.
"It was kind of scary," said Matt Waldron. "These two kids I guess had panicked and jumped out of the top-story window and the one kid broke his ankle and the other girl was not in good shape just lying on the ground."
Laura Lisbeth, a 19-year-old sophomore, told CNN.com on Monday evening that while she was at Holtzman Alumni Center she saw one of her friends who had been shot in the arm.
Lisbeth said she was shaken by the day's events.
"I'm terrified," she said. "It's gonna be so hard to walk back into class and trust that nothing bad will happen."
Madison Van Duyne said she and her classmates in a media writing class were on "lockdown" in their classroom. They were huddled in the middle of the classroom, writing stories about the shootings and posting them online.
Two hours between incidents
Two people were killed in a separate incident at a dormitory on the campus about two hours earlier, around 7:15 a.m. University police Chief Wendell Flinchum said police were still investigating whether the two incidents are related.
At a news conference Monday afternoon, Flinchum did not rule out a separate shooter for the dormitory incident. (Watch the police chief explain where bodies were found )
One dormitory victim identified
Courtney Dalton, an 18-year-old student who worked at West End Dining Hall, said her friend Ryan Clark was one of the two dormitory victims.
She said Clark, a resident assistant at West Johnston Ambler Hall, had once worked at the cafeteria serving pizza.
"He was a happy person; this is really sad," she said, sobbing.
"All I can do is pray for his family now," she told CNN.com.
'Person of interest'
At the time of the later shootings at Norris Hall, police were investigating a "person of interest" in the dormitory shootings, Flinchum said. But the man -- a non-student who knew one of the victims -- had not been arrested, and it is unclear if he has any link to the other gunman, he said.
Flinchum said at a Monday night news conference that they had a preliminary identification of the shooter at Norris Hall but were not releasing it.
A law enforcement source close to the investigation told CNN a 22-caliber handgun and a 9 mm handgun were recovered at the scene.
University President Charles Steger told reporters Monday night that police found the front doors of Norris chained shut and that by the time they got to the second floor, the gunfire stopped. (Watch gunfire on the campus )
Officials thought first incident was isolated
Asked why the campus, which has more than 26,000 students, was not shut down after the first shooting, Flinchum responded that police determined "it was an isolated event to that building and the decision was made not to cancel classes at that time." (Officials thought shooter had fled)
Sharon Honaker with Carilion New River Medical Center in Christiansburg said one of the four gunshot victims being treated there was in critical condition.
Scott Hill, a spokesman for Montgomery Regional Hospital in Blacksburg, said 17 wounded students were taken there.
West Ambler Johnston Hall is a dormitory that houses 895 students and is located near the drill field and stadium. (Campus map)
Amie Steele, editor-in-chief of the campus newspaper, said one of her reporters at the dormitory where the first shootings occured reported "mass chaos."
The reporter said there were "lots of students running around, going crazy, and the police officers were trying to settle everyone down and keep everything under control," according to Steele. (Watch police, ambulances hustle to the scene )
The university is updating students through e-mails, and an Internet webcam is broadcasting live pictures of the campus.
Last August, the first day of class was cut short by a manhunt for an escaped prisoner accused of killing a Blacksburg hospital security guard and a sheriff's deputy.
After Monday's shootings, students were instructed to stay indoors and away from windows, according to a university statement. (Watch a student describe living through a "college Columbine" )
The university has scheduled a convocation for 2 p.m. ET Tuesday. Classes also have been canceled Tuesday. In Washington, the House and Senate observed moments of silence for the victims and President Bush said the nation was "shocked and saddened" by news of the tragedy.
"Today, our nation grieves with those who have lost loved ones," he said. "We hold the victims in our hearts, we lift them up in our prayers and we ask a loving God to comfort those who are suffering today."
Before Monday, the deadliest mass shooting occurred in 1991, when George Hennard drove a pickup truck into a Killeen, Texas, cafeteria and fatally shot 23 people, before shooting and killing himself.
The deadliest school shootings came in 1966 and 1999. In the former, Charles Joseph Whitman, a 25-year-old ex-Marine, killed 13 people on the University of Texas campus. He was killed by police.
In 1999, 17-year-old Dylan Klebold and 18-year-old Eric Harris -- armed with guns and pipe bombs -- killed 12 students and a teacher before killing themselves at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado.
CNN's Ashley Fantz and Jeanne Meserve contributed to this report.

Al-Sadr spokesman: ministers to leave Iraq government

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Anti-U.S. Shiite cleric and militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr will announce Monday the departure of his movement's six ministers from Iraq's government to press demands for the U.S. to leave Iraq, the bloc's spokesman Saleh al-Ageili told CNN.
The move makes good on a threat issued last week after Iraq's prime minister rejected a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S.-led troops, said al-Ageili.
Al-Sadr's stake in the government controls the ministries of Health, Agriculture, Province Affairs, Transportation, Tourism and Civil Society Organizations.
The withdrawal will not affect Sadr's 30 members of parliament, .
The powerful political movement boycotted Iraq's government for two months after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki met with President Bush in November.
The movement rejoined the government in January after Iraqi parliament members said they would consider the group's demands, which include a timetable for U.S.-led coalition troop withdrawal and a United Nations assurance that troop deployment would not be extended.
Al-Sadr, widely popular in Iraq's Shiite heartland, opposes the U.S. occupation of Iraq and, during the war, his Mehdi Army militia has fiercely fought coalition and Iraqi forces.
Many opponents of the occupation have demanded a timetable for U.S. troop withdrawal, an issue heavily debated in the United States.
Al-Sadr's faction, which was instrumental in getting al-Maliki the prime minister's position last year, is part of the Shiite-led United Iraqi Alliance, the political bloc that holds sway in Iraq. Speaking on Tuesday in Japan, al-Maliki said "achievements and victories" on the ground -- not timetables -- should determine the "departure of international forces" from his war-torn country.
"We are progressing on the security issue day by day because we are having security responsibility handed over to us continuously," al-Maliki said. "We see no need for a withdrawal timetable because we are working as fast as we can."
Reacting to al-Maliki's comments, al-Sadr's political committee issued a statement Wednesday warning its cabinet ministers might quit as a result.
"This decision has been taken because Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki did not respect the will of the Iraqi people who went on protest on April 9th demanding ... occupation forces to withdraw from Iraq," al-Ageili said.
CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report

Gates: Army tours extended by three months

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Tours of duty for members of the U.S. Army will be extended from 12 months to 15 months effective immediately, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced Wednesday.

"What we're trying to do here is provide some long-term predictability to our soldiers and their families," Gates told reporters at the Pentagon.

In exchange for the extension, Gates said the service will be able to give all units a year at home between deployments.

He denied the order was a sign that the Army has passed its breaking point under the stresses of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, saying the service has met or passed its recruiting and retention goals.

But he added that the military has been "stretched" by the conflicts.

And he blasted Tuesday's leak of that proposal to the media, saying the Defense Department hoped to give the troops 48 hours' advance notice of the decision.

The order covers the active-duty Army, which provides most of the estimated 146,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. National Guard and reserve troops would continue to spend a year in the war zone, Gates said.

About 15,000 more troops are expected to be deployed to Iraq in coming months to support the efforts to pacify Baghdad and other provinces.

The Marines, whose members serve seven months deployed, are unaffected by Wednesday's order, said Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Troops now held beyond 12 months are paid an additional $1,000 a month. That policy will continue, Gates said.

Also, the Army has struggled to entice soldiers and Marines not to leave the service. The campaign to retain soldiers has reached $1 billion, with bonuses soaring nearly sixfold since 2003. (Read full story)

Army: Money crunch ahead
Last week, the Army warned program managers to prepare for a possible money crunch if President Bush vetoes an emergency war spending bill that calls for the eventual withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq.

But analysts say Pentagon staff will be the first to face cuts. In a memo sent Monday, the Army Budget Office warned that a resolution to the standoff between Bush and Congress over the bill "is doubtful before the end of April."

It said managers needed to plan to stretch current funds into June, with operations in Iraq and Afghanistan exempt from the restrictions. (Read full story)

Democrats used the announcement to again call for changes to the president's war strategy.

"The Bush administration has failed to create a plan to fully equip and train our troops, bring them home safely and soon, and provide our veterans with the quality care they deserve," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said. "Extending the tours of all active-duty Army personnel is an unacceptable price for our troops and their families to pay."

In her statement, Pelosi encouraged Bush "to sit down with us to find a solution to bring this war to an end."

4 bombers, officer die in Casablanca terrorist attacks

CASABLANCA, Morocco (AP) -- Three suspected terrorists blew themselves up as police were closing in Tuesday, and another suspect was shot dead by police while he was preparing to detonate his explosives, authorities said.
A police officer was killed and another was injured. A young child also was injured, officials said.
The explosions in Casablanca, weeks after the bombing of an Internet cafe in the city, promised to further rattle the North African kingdom whose first high-profile brush with Islamic terrorism came in five suicide bombings in the city in May 2003.
Moroccan authorities responded to the 2003 attacks, which left 45 people dead, with the arrest of thousands of alleged Islamic militants -- some accused of working with al Qaeda to plot strikes in Morocco and abroad. At least two of those killed Tuesday were suspected of links to those attacks.
Parliamentary elections are scheduled for September. The opposition Justice and Development Party, an Islamic group, is expected to win the most votes.
Tuesday's violence started when police, acting on a tip, surrounded a four-story apartment building in the working-class Hay Farah neighborhood of Casablanca where the suspected terrorists were holed up, officials said.
The suspects were thought to have links to last month's cyber cafe bombing.
One of the bombers who killed himself, Ayyoub Raydi, was the brother of the cafe bomber, Abdelfettah Raydi, an Interior Ministry official said. The official asked that he not be named, citing ministry policy.
After police surrounded the building before dawn Tuesday, one of the suspects fled to the roof, where he blew himself up, said a police official on the scene who refused to give his name, saying he was not authorized to do so. Morocco's official MAP news agency identified that bomber as Mohamed Rachidi.
A second man appeared to be on the verge of also detonating explosives, fumbling with his clothes, when a police sniper shot him, officials said. The suspect later died of his wounds. He was identified by police as Mohamed Mentala. Mentala was carrying 4 kilograms (nearly 9 pounds) of explosives, the Interior Ministry official said.
Mentala and Rachidi had been sought by police for alleged involvement in the 2003 suicide bombings in Casablanca, the Interior Ministry official said. MAP said Rachidi, 37, was part of a terrorist cell involved in the killing of a Casablanca police official in 2003.
Ayyoub Raydi blew himself up in the afternoon as police were searching the neighborhood for him, officials said. A bloody pair of legs were seen lying in the middle of a road after that explosion. Police covered up the legs, shorn off at the knees, with pieces of cardboard. Broken glass and charred debris littered the street.
A police officer was killed and another seriously injured in that blast, the Interior Ministry official said. A 7-year-old boy was hospitalized with light injuries, the official said.
Police cordoned off the area, erecting metal barriers to keep thousands of onlookers back.
In the evening, a fourth person detonated his explosives in the middle of a boulevard, said a police official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
The MAP news agency said the blast injured five people. It gave no details.
"We all thought that the guy had gone the other way -- and then Kablam! -- there was this explosion behind us," said a shopkeeper who gave his name only as Saad. "This is horrible. There's no trust here anymore, because they [the bombers] can get so close to you."
Investigations of the March 11 cafe bombing led police to a wider suspected plot to attack the port in Casablanca, which is Morocco's largest city, as well as police stations and tourist sites in Morocco.
In that blast, bomber Abdelfettah Raydi detonated his charge when the cyber cafe's owner caught him surfing jihadist Web sites. He was killed, and four others were injured.
Authorities say the subsequent investigation uncovered a larger plot that involved at least 30 people. The group had amassed dozens of kilograms of homemade explosives in a Casablanca apartment.
Police have so far arrested 31 suspects, who have been questioned by judges in preliminary court hearings. Raydi and many other suspects were among some 2,000 arrested after the 2003 bombings, but were later released from prison under a royal pardon.
Moroccan authorities have said they do not believe Raydi's group had links to international terrorist networks.
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