U.S. soldiers in Iraq (news - web sites) search for explosives on a road outside Baqubah, September 1, 2004. Iraq war veterans on the sidelines of the Republican convention say they are sick of the bickering over the Vietnam War records of President Bush (news - web sites) and Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) and want a serious discussion of Iraq and veterans' issues instead. 'We want to force both candidates to give us some answers here,' said Paul Rieckhoff, a platoon leader in Iraq and executive director of Operation Truth, which is lobbying to highlight the Iraq war as an election issue. Photo by Reuters
Twenty Iraqis were killed and six wounded in a US air strike overnight on suspected Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi safe house in Fallujah. Picture shows US Marine looking on as Iraqi soldiers carry out a joint search of a building for weapons in Fallujah(AFP/USMC/File/Jose E. Guillen)
NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 2: New York City police stand guard with automatic weapons outside the entrance of the Church of Our Saviour Catholic church while President George Bush attends a prayer service September 2, 2004 in New York City. After leaving the prayer service the president went to Madison Square Garden to check the stage set-up for his acceptance speech tonight at the Republican National Convention. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Israeli soldiers walk beside an army vehicle as they prepare to move into the Palestinian refugee camp of Deir al-Balah near the Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom in Gaza strip September 2, 2004. Israeli forces blew up two large apartment blocks in the Gaza Strip (news - web sites) on Thursday, destroying the homes of hundreds of Palestinians, two days after suicide bombers killed 16 people in Israel. Photo by Gadi Kabalo/Reuters
Members of the Mehdi Army militia of radical cleric Moqtada Sadr listen to instruction during a military training session in the southern city of Basra. US troops patrolling the streets of the Shiite rebel bastion of Sadr City have called on Mehdi Army fighters to turn in their heavy weapons after the firebrand cleric called for a truce(AFP/Essam Al-Sudani)
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN: French Defence Minster Michele Alliot-Marie (R) is assisted by an armed guard as she steps down from a French Air Force aeroplane after arriving at Kabul International Airport, 02 September 2004. Alliot-Marie is set to stay in the Afghan capital for a few hours, during which time she will meet President Hamid Karzai and Afghan Defence Minister Mohammed Qassim Fahim. AFP PHOTO/ SHAH Marai (Photo credit should read SHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images)
Panamanian National Police stand in formation during their change in command ceremony in Panama City, Panama Thursday, Sept. 2, 2004. (AP Photo/Kathryn Cook)
Members of the Nicaraguan Army march during a parade to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Army, at the military base outside the capital of Managua, September 2, 2004.
PATTANI, THAILAND: A soldier checks motorcycles parked at a government office grounds in Pattani southern Thailand, 02 September 2004. Violence in the Muslim-majority south has left more than 285 people dead this year from bomb and gun attacks and a failed separatist uprising. AFP PHOTO/PORNCHAI KITTIWONGSAKUL (Photo credit should read PORNCHAI KITTIWONGSAKUL/AFP/Getty Images)
BESLAN, RUSSIA - SEPTEMBER 2: A Russian soldier feels the strain of crisis during a siege around the school where some 350 hostages, most of them women and children, are being held by suspected Chechen militants on September 2, 2004, one day after the drama began in Belsan, Russia.. The terrorist attack in the southern Russian region of North Ossetia, near war-ravaged Chechnya in the Caucasus, was the third to hit Russia in eight days, raising questions about President Vladimir Putin's hardline Chechnya policy. (Photo by Scott Peterson/Getty Images)
BESLAN, RUSSIA - SEPTEMBER 2: Russian forces brace for a siege around the school where some 350 hostages, most of them women and children, are being held by suspected Chechen militants on September 2, 2004, one day after the drama began in Belsan, Russia.. The terrorist attack in the southern Russian region of North Ossetia, near war-ravaged Chechnya in the Caucasus, was the third to hit Russia in eight days, raising questions about President Vladimir Putin's hardline Chechnya policy. (Photo by Scott Peterson/Getty Images)
BESLAN, RUSSIAN FEDERATION: Russian special forces soldiers pass by relatives of hostages outside the school, where a group of gunmen, wearing belts laden with explosives, are holding hostage some 350 people in the northern Ossetian town of Beslan, some 30 kms outside Vladikavkaz, 02 September 2004. Twelve civilians have lost their lives as a result of the seizure of hundreds of people at a school in the southern Russian republic of North Ossetia, authorities said, cited by ITAR-TASS. AFP PHOTO / MAXIM MARMUR (Photo credit should read MAXIM MARMUR/AFP/Getty Images)
BESLAN, RUSSIAN FEDERATION: Russian special forces soldiers wait in position near the school, where a group of gunmen, wearing belts laden with explosives, are holding hostage some 240 people in the northern Ossetian village of Beslan, some 30 kms outside Vladikavkaz, 01 September 2004. Some 132 children were among the hostages seized at the Beslan school. The crisis unit said the figure had been compiled after parents and relations helped specify the numbers of pupils who went into the school on the first day of the academic year early 01 September. AFP PHOTO / KAZBEK BASAYEV (Photo credit should read KAZBEK BASAYEV/AFP/Getty Images)
BESLAN, RUSSIA - SEPTEMBER 2: Russian forces brace for a siege around the school where some 350 hostages, most of them women and children, are being held by suspected Chechen militants on September 2, 2004, one day after the drama began in Belsan, Russia.. The terrorist attack in the southern Russian region of North Ossetia, near war-ravaged Chechnya in the Caucasus, was the third to hit Russia in eight days, raising questions about President Vladimir Putin's hardline Chechnya policy. (Photo by Scott Peterson/Getty Images)
BESLAN, RUSSIAN FEDERATION: Ossetian soldiers take position near the school where a group of gunmen, wearing belts laden with explosives, are holding hostage some 240 people hostage in the northern Ossetian village of Beslan, some 30 kms outside Vladikavkaz, 01 September 2004. Some 132 children were among the hostages seized at the Beslan school. The crisis unit said the figure had been compiled after parents and relations helped specify the numbers of pupils who went into the school on the first day of the academic year early 01 September. AFP PHOTO / DMITRY AZAROV / KOMMERSANT *RUSSIA OUT* (Photo credit should read DMITRY AZAROV/AFP/Getty Images)
BESLAN, RUSSIA - SEPTEMBER 2: A Russian soldier stands guard near a school taken over by terrorist September 2, 2004 in the town of Beslan, Russia. Russian authorities ruled out for now the use of force to end the standoff at a southern Russia school near Chechnya where at least 350 children and adults are being held under threat of death. (Photo by Oleg Nikishin/ Getty Images)
Russian soldiers outside the school in Beslan where gunmen are holding hundreds hostage. Armed hostage-takers freed 26 women and children from the Russian school, news agencies said quoting local authorities.(AFP/Yuri Tutov)
A Russian soldier uses optics as he looks at the seized school in Beslan, Northern Ossetia, Thursday, Sept. 2, 2004. Heavily armed militants, many strapped with explosives, held more than 350 hostages including children for a second day Thursday inside a provincial Russian school as negotiators scrambled to find a way out of the tense stand-off. (AP Photo/ Musa Sadulayev)
Russian soldiers prepare food near the school seized by heavily armed masked men and women in the town of Beslan in the province of North Ossetia near Chechnya (news - web sites), September 2, 2004. Lev Roshal, a prominent medic, started talks on Thursday with captors holding hundreds of children and adults hostage in southern Russia, while the Kremlin remained silent about the humiliating attack. REUTERS/Eduard Kornienko
Russian Interior Ministry troops stand near the school seized by heavily armed masked men and women in the town of Beslan in the province of North Ossetia near Chechnya (news - web sites), September 2, 2004. Lev Roshal, a prominent medic, started talks on Thursday with captors holding hundreds of children and adults hostage in southern Russia, while the Kremlin remained silent about the humiliating attack. REUTERS/Eduard Kornienko
DELTA FORCE THEY AINTAn Interior Ministry officer looks through the scope of his gun as he watches the seized school in Beslan, North Ossetia, Thursday, Sept. 2, 2004. Heavily-armed militants released at least 31 women and children on Thursday from the provincial Russian school where they are holding more than 350 hostages for the second straight day, officials said. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)
An Ossetian militiaman aims at the school where gunmen are holding hundreds hostage in Beslan. Hundreds of children, parents and teachers were held hostage by armed gunmen in a Russian school for a second day as President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites) vowed their safety was the government's top priority.(AFP/Yuri Tutov)
Russian policemen stand near the school seized by heavily armed masked men and women in the town of Beslan in the province of North Ossetia near Chechnya (news - web sites), September 2, 2004. Lev Roshal, a prominent medic, started talks on Thursday with captors holding hundreds of children and adults hostage in southern Russia, while the Kremlin remained silent about the humiliating attack. REUTERS/Eduard Korniyenko