FBI Fired Tear Gas at Waco, Official Says

Retreating from its past denials, the FBI is acknowledging that federal agents fired one or more incendiary tear gas canisters during the standoff near Waco, Texas, with Branch Davidians led by David A. Koresh, a federal law enforcement official said in Washington, D.C. The agency, however, is maintaining its stance that it did not start the fire that consumed the Branch Davidian compound with Koresh and more than 80 followers inside on April 19, 1993. Incendiary devices--believed to be two military tear gas canisters--were fired not at buildings in the Branch Davidian compound, but at a bunker nearby, the official said.