- Federal agents in the northwestern US state of Washington
searched a home and dug up a garden seeking evidence possibly linked to
the sniper attacks terrorizing the US capital.
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- Federal agents could be seen combing the garden a house
in the city of Tacoma, about 48 kilometers (30 miles) (Eds correct) south
of here, with metal detectors, and the stump of a tree was dug up and taken
away.
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- Local media reports said it was possible that the Washington
DC sniper or someone involved in the case had lived in the duplex house
sometime in the past.
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- Federal Bureau of Investigation officials here refused
to comment on the operation, but sources said it was linked to the serial
sniper who has shot 13 people in and around the US capital nearly 4,500
kilometers (3,000 miles) away.
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- Officers could be seen in local television pictures picking
through the garden -- which had been marked with a grid lines to aid the
search -- and have removed pieces of potential evidence from the site,
local news channels said.
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- KIRO 7 news said agents had removed trees and were possibly
search for bullets or bullet casings in the area.
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- Tacoma police spokesman Jim Mattheis said his force had
provided 15 men early Wednesday to help the FBI and other federal agents
with the search, but declines to provide a reason for teh search or any
further details.
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- "The FBI was going to be doing an evidence search
and that's where we have been all day," he said. "We're probably
within a half an hour of clearing the scene here," he added.
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- Neighbours said federal agents had begun questioning
them late Tuesday and that he full search of the property got underway
Wednesday morning.
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- "It looks like an archeological dig there with tapes
running the full length of the yard," one resident said.
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- A man who lives in the house was being questioned by
authorities, neighbours said, adding that they had been told that he was
not thought to be a suspect in the sniping investigation.
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- Tacoma is a major military centre and is home to a major
army base called Fort Lewis as well as to an air force an an army base.
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- Thousands of police and military officials are combing
the US capital in a bid to track down the gunman who is randomly picking
off victims and who has threatened to target children.
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- Despite the threat, schools in the Washington area reopened
Wednesday a day after a bus driver became the guman's 10th fatal victim.
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- A police news conference that had been scheduled Wednesday
night in Maryland, near the US capital, was delayed after a reported new
evelopment in the case.
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