WASHINGTON

Obama says ‘lone wolf’ strike biggest terror threat for U.S.

President Obama said Tuesday that a “lone wolf” terror attack in the United States is more likely than a major coordinated effort like the Sept. 11 attacks nearly a decade ago.

With the nation preparing to observe the 10th anniversary of hijacked airliners crashing in New York City, Washington, D.C., and the Pennsylvania countryside, Obama said the government is in a state of heightened awareness.

“The risk that we’re especially concerned over right now is the lone wolf terrorist, somebody with a single weapon being able to carry out wide-scale massacres of the sort that we saw in Norway recently,” the president told CNN.

“You know, when you’ve got one person who is deranged or driven by a hateful ideology, they can do a lot of damage, and it’s a lot harder to trace those lone wolf operators.”

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In Norway, Anders Behring Breivik, 32, was charged with killing 69 people last month at a youth camp. A lawyer for Breivik says his client believes the massacre was necessary to save Norway and Europe from Muslims and punish politicians who have embraced multiculturalism.

In recent years the United States has endured terror-linked attacks that authorities believe were carried out by a single person.

A botched car bomb in New York’s Times Square in 2010 and a Christmas Day 2009 attempt to bring down a Detroit-bound jetliner with a bomb were tied by authorities to one person in each instance.

SAN’A, Yemen

Leader vows to return home, raising fears of new violence

Embattled Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh vowed Tuesday to return home from Saudi Arabia, a move which could set off a violent new phase in the impoverished country’s six-month uprising seeking to topple his regime.

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Security across Yemen has collapsed during the revolt, with al-Qaida-linked militants controlling entire towns in the country’s south and anti-government tribes clashing with security forces elsewhere. In the past two days, at least 33 people were killed in fighting north of the capital, medical officials said.

Saleh, Yemen’s ruler for 33 years, has maintained power throughout the uprising despite massive protests, defections by military commanders, growing international pressure to transfer power and a bomb attack on his palace that left him injured.

He has been in neighboring Saudi Arabia recovering from severe burns and other wounds since June 5.

Speaking Tuesday in a televised address from the Saudi capital, Saleh vowed to return home, telling his supporters: “See you soon in San’a.” He also lashed out at his opponents, calling them “exploiters, war merchants and street looters.”

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan

Motorcycle bomb explodes in food market, killing eight

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A bomb planted on a motorcycle exploded in a vegetable market in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing eight people at dusk as residents broke their daily fast for the holy month of Ramadan, authorities said.

Separately, Afghan police said a rocket fired into the capital early today landed on the grounds of the presidential palace. It was unclear if there were casualties or damage.

The motorcycle bomb was positioned at the market in the Dihrawud district of Uruzgan province, said provincial council director Amanullah Otaq.

Provincial spokesman Hamid Milad Mudasir confirmed the incident, but said he could not confirm how many people were killed because relatives had taken many of the bodies away immediately after the attack.
 


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