Top US officials said today that authorities were investigating but had found no evidence to link a string of deadly sniper attacks in the Washington area to international terror groups.
Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell said it was conceivable but unproven that the attacks were connected to al-Qaeda.
"We're looking for every possible connection, but so far I've not seen anything that does tie it to al-Qaeda," he said.
He was speaking following what appeared to be the 12th attack by the gunman who has encircled the nation's capital since October 2nd with random shootings that have killed nine people and injured two.
A 37-year-old man, who has not been named, was shot in the abdomen as he was leaving a restaurant with his wife, and a hospital spokeswoman said he was in critical condition after three hours of surgery.
A shooting last night in Ashland, Virginia, prompted another massive manhunt and dragnet of highways. Hundreds of local, state and federal officials are pursuing the killer, who appears to pick victims at random and has struck with a high-velocity rifle in Washington and neighboring suburbs in Maryland and Virginia.
President Bush's national security adviser, Ms Condoleezza Rice, said officials were vigorously looking for a link between the sniper and terror groups but had found none.
"There's no evidence to this point that this is the work of an international terrorist organization," Ms Rice said. "We are of course keeping open that possibility and we're going to turn over every rock to see if it might in fact be."
She said investigators were sent to the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to interview suspected al-Qaeda detainees from Afghanistan about the sniper shootings.
Ms Rice also said no claim of responsibility for the shootings had been made and President George W. Bush was being briefed daily. "But there is no evidence at this point that this is internationally driven in any way," Ms Rice said.