Assassination plot targeting Barack Obama foiled

Washington: Federal agents said they have disrupted plans by two men to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) said on Monday.

Federal agents said they also disrupted plans to rob a gun store and target a predominantly black high school in a murder spree that was to have begun in Tennessee.

Jim Cavanaugh, special agent in charge of ATF's field office in Tennessee, said the men planned to kill 88 people, including 14 African-Americans by beheading.

The men also sought to go on a national killing spree after the Tennessee murders, with Obama as its final target, Cavanaugh told The Associated Press.

"They said that would be their last, final act, that they would attempt to kill Senator Obama," Cavanaugh said.

An Obama spokeswoman traveling with the senator in Pennsylvania had no immediate comment.

The men, Daniel Cowart, 20, of Bells, Tennessee, and Paul Schlesselman, 18, of Helena-West Helena, Arkansas, are being held without bond.

Agents seized a rifle, a sawed-off shotgun and three pistols from the men when they were arrested on October 22.