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Bush Orders U.S. Military to Be Placed on High-Alert Status
U.S. President George W. Bush said Tuesday that the U.S. military has been placed on "high-alert status" after a spate of apparent terrorist attacks on targets on U.S. soil.
Bush made the announcement at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.
He vowed to "hunt down and punish" the authors of a spate of lethal terrorist attacks on U.S. targets that caused the collapse of the World Trade Center in New York.
"Make no mistake, the United States will hunt down and punish those responsible for these cowardly acts," Bush said in a brief statement. Bush was in Florida at the time of the attack, and was flown at noon to safety of a military installation in Barksdale Air Force Base.
Meanwhile, the top leaders of U.S. Congress were led to the safety of an undisclosed location, and military aircraft were reported patrolling the sky above the capital.
Following the crashes of the two planes into the World Trade Center in New York early Tuesday morning, a plane crash into the Defense Department building and a fire near the White House rocked Washington D.C., forcing evacuation of the federal government and sending workers rushing into the streets.
Besides, a large plane crashed just north of the Somerset County Airport in Pennsylvania of the United States.
The plane, believed to be a Boeing 757, crashed about 10 a.m. local time (1400 GMT) about 130 kilometers southeast of Pittsburgh.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered all airplanes across the United States to remain on the ground in the first such national action ever.
"It's clear that this is terrorist-related, we're not sure who is responsible," a U.S. official said. "There was no advance warning of this."
"A plane hit the (Defense Department) building," said David Cook, director of Administration and Management at the Pentagon, the world's biggest office building.
Gray smoke billowed from the five-sided building. The more than 20,000 civilians and military men and women who work in the building streamed into the surrounding car parks, driven by blue and white strobe alarm lights and wailing signs.
The plane that crashed into the Pentagon appeared to be a commercial airliner that was accelerating as it approach the massive building.
People raced from the Capitol when it was evacuated and workers downtown left their offices and headed out of the city.
The White House ordered an evacuation of the historic building and its complex.
Fire trucks surrounded the White House as smoke billowed from outside the grounds on the south side of the president's official residence.
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