THE WASHINGTON SNIPER: The Suspect - Veteran of the Gulf War who trained for notoriety with the chilling motto: One shot, one kill.

(From The Independent)

Byline: Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles

THE MAN suspected of being the sniper who has killed 10 people in the Washington area, was trained by the best. Not only did John Allen Muhammad serve in the US military in the 1980s and 1990s, including a stint on active duty during the Gulf war; he was also, for many years, attached to a West Coast army base famous for its sniper training programme.

The programme's motto: "One shot, one kill." A Defence Department official who spoke to reporters yesterday said Mr Muhammad was an expert marksman who earned several badges and ribbons during his years in the army and was known to be particularly proficient with an M-16 assault rifle.

In the swirl of information that spilled out in the first hours after the arrest of Mr Muhammad, 41, and John Lee Malvo, the 17-year-old who he has described as his stepson, …