FBI Surrounds Last Protesters in Oregon Standoff
Local Editor
The Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI] on Wednesday surrounded the last four demonstrators holed up in a weeks-long armed siege at a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon.
On the 40th day of the standoff, the FBI said that negotiations between them and the demonstrators were ongoing and no shots had been fired.
The siege at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge began on January 2 when protest leader Ammon Bundy and 30 armed followers, most of them from other US states, took over the site to demonstrate against federal land policies.
According to an FBI statement, the bureau's agents were deployed at barricades "immediately ahead of and behind the area where the protesters are camping."
"We reached a point where it became necessary to take action in a way that best ensured the safety of those on the refuge, the law enforcement officers who are on scene, and the people of Harney County who live and work in this area." said Greg Bretzing, head of the FBI's Portland office.
The FBI said that it moved in after one of the remaining protesters drove an all-terrain vehicle past the barricades set up by the protesters.
The Oregonian newspaper tweeted that the FBI told the protesters they would not escalate the situation in what was left of Wednesday, but were not leaving the scene either.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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