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LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — A federal judge has refused to grant a new trial to a former Texas Tech University student convicted in a failed bomb plot.

Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari (KAH'-lihd ah-lee-EHM' al-duh-SAHR'-ee) asked for a new trial in July, a month after his conviction in Lubbock of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.

Aldawsari accused prosecutors of misrepresenting his intentions for coming to America. Prosecutor Denise Williams accused Aldawsari in June of "marching down that road" to an attack since he was 11.

U.S. District Judge Donald Walter cited Aldawsari's journals as evidence to dismiss his claim. Walter also denied Aldawsari's other claims about supposed prosecution misstatements.

The 22-year-old Saudi native was arrested in February 2011.

Aldawsari faces up to life in prison when he's sentenced Oct. 9.

NEW YORK (AP) — Americans marked the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks Tuesday in familiar but subdued ceremonies that put grieving families ahead of politicians and suggested it's time to move on after a decade of remembrance.

As in past years, thousands gathered at the World Trade Center site in New York, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pa., to read the names of nearly 3,000 victims killed in the worst terror attack in U.S. history.

But many felt that last year's 10th anniversary was an emotional turning point for public mourning of the attacks. For the first time, elected officials weren't speaking at the ceremony, which often allowed them a solemn turn in the spotlight, but raised questions about the public and private Sept. 11. Fewer families attended the ceremonies this year, and some cities canceled their remembrances altogether.

"I feel much more relaxed" this year, said Jane Pollicino, who came to ground zero Tuesday morning to mourn her husband, who was killed at the trade center. "After the ninth anniversary, that next day, you started building up to the 10th year. This feels a lot different, in that regard. It's another anniversary that we can commemorate in a calmer way, without that 10-year pressure."

As bagpipes played at the year-old Sept. 11 memorial in New York, family clutching balloons, flowers and photos of their loved ones bowed their heads in silence at 8:46 a.m., the moment that the first hijacked jetliner crashed into the trade center's north tower. Bells tolled to mark the moments that planes crashed into the second tower, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field, and the moments that each tower collapsed.

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama observed the moment in a ceremony on the White House's south lawn, and then laid a white floral wreath at the Pentagon, above a concrete slab that said "Sept. 11, 2001 — 937 am." He later recalled the horror of the attacks, declaring, "Our country is safer and our people are resilient."

Victims' families in New York began the solemn, familiar ritual of tearfully reading the names of nearly 3,000 killed, with personal messages to their lost loved ones.

"Rick, can you hear your name as the roll is called again? On this sacred ground where your dust settled?" said Richard Blood, whose son, Richard Middleton Blood, Jr., died in the trade center's south tower. "If only those who hear your name could know what a loving son and beautiful person you grew to be. I love you, son, and miss you terribly."

Thousands had attended the ceremony in New York in previous years, including last year's milestone 10th anniversary. A crowd of fewer than 200 swelled to about 1,000 by late Tuesday morning, as family members laid roses and made paper rubbings of their loved ones' names etched onto the Sept. 11 memorial.

Commuters rushed out of the subway and fewer police barricades were in place than in past years in the lower Manhattan neighborhood surrounding ground zero. More than 4 million people in the past year have visited the memorial, which became more of a public space than a closed-off construction site.

Families had a mixed reaction to the changing ceremony, which kept politicians away from the microphone in New York for the first time. Charles G. Wolf, whose wife, Katherine, was killed at the trade center, said: "We've gone past that deep, collective public grief." But Pollicino said it's important that politicians still attend the ceremony.

"There's something missing if they're not here at all," she said. "Now, all of a sudden, it's 'for the families.' This happened to our country — it didn't happen only to me."

And Joe Torres, who put in 16-hour days in ground zero's "pit" cleaning up tons of debris in the days after the attacks said another year has changed nothing for him.

"The 11th year, for me, it's the same as if it happened yesterday. It could be 50 years from now, and to me, it'll be just as important as year one, or year five or year ten."

Like 2001, this Sept. 11 was on a Tuesday, for the second time since the attacks. The early fall weather was much like the morning on 2001.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the governors of New York and new Jersey and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani all attended New York's ceremony. Biden spoke to hundreds at the Flight 93 Memorial in Pennsylvania, saying the ceremonies were a reminder that the country hasn't forgotten them.

The Obamas planned later to visit wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The U.S. terror attacks were followed by wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, where the U.S. military death toll years ago surpassed the 9/11 victim count. At least 1,987 U.S. troops have died in Afghanistan and 4,475 in Iraq, according to the Pentagon.

Allied military forces marked the anniversary at a short ceremony at NATO's headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan with a tribute to more than 3,000 foreign troops killed in the decade-long war.

"Eleven years on from that day there should be no doubt that our dedication to this commitment, that commitment that was seared into our souls that day so long ago, remains strong and unshaken," said Marine Gen. John Allen, the top commander of U.S. and coalition troops.

Other ceremonies were held across the country — from New York's Long Island, where hundreds wrote messages to their loved ones on a memorial, to Boston, where more than 200 people with ties to Massachusetts were remembered. But some cities scaled back — Middletown, N.J., which lost 37 residents, held a small, silent ceremony instead of previous events with speeches and music. The New York City suburb of Glen Rock, N.J., where 11 people were killed, did not hold a memorial this year for the first time.

"It was appropriate for this year — not that the losses will ever be forgotten," said Brad Jordan, chairman of a Glen Rock community group that helps victims' families. "But we felt it was right to shift the balance a bit from the observance of loss to a commemoration of how the community came together to heal."

The anniversary led to a brief pause in the presidential campaign as Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney pulled their negative ads and avoided campaign rallies. Romney shook hands with firefighters at Chicago's O'Hare Airport and was flying to Nevada to address the National Guard, whose members deployed after the attacks. His running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, had no scheduled public events.

The memorial foundation announced this summer that politicians wouldn't be included this year, to separate politics from the ceremony. But others said keeping elected officials off the rostrum smacked of ... politics. And several said they were unwilling to let go.

"Coming here, it's like ripping off a Band-Aid," said Yasmin Leon, whose sister was killed at the trade center. "You rip it off and the wound is opened again. But you keep coming back anyway."

And at ground zero, family members reading their loved ones' names said the passage of time did not change their grief.

"Mark, they say time heals all wounds. It's not true, Mark," said Joanne Hindy, whose nephew died in the north tower. "There's a void in all our lives because this that will never ever be filled or healed."

Associated Press writers Verena Dobnik, Meghan Barr and Alex Katz in New York, Wayne Parry in Atlantic City, N.J., Steven R. Hurst in Washington, Joe Mandak in Shanksville, Pa., and Amir Shah in Afghanistan contributed to this report.

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Follow Jennifer Peltz at http://twitter.com/jennpeltz

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration, roiled by the first killing of a U.S. ambassador in more than 30 years, is investigating whether the assault on the U.S. consulate in Libya was a planned terrorist strike to mark the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and not a spontaneous mob enraged over an anti-Islam YouTube video

President Barack Obama vowed in a Rose Garden address that the U.S. would "work with the Libyan government to bring to justice" those who killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. Intelligence officials said the attack on the Benghazi consulate was "too coordinated or professional to be spontaneous," according to a U.S. counterterrorism official.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the incident publicly.

National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said it would be premature to "ascribe any motive to this reprehensible act."

The attack, which came hours after a mob stormed the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and tore down the U.S. flag, was presumed to have been triggered by a movie, whose trailer has gone viral on YouTube, depicting the Islamic prophet Muhammad in disrespectful ways. In an extraordinary move, Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called anti-Islamic preacher Terry Jones and asked him to stop promoting the film. A spokeswoman said the church would not show the film Wednesday evening.

"Make no mistake. Justice will be done," a somber Obama pledged at the White House, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at his side.

He ordered increased security at U.S. diplomatic missions overseas, particularly in Libya, and said he condemned "in the strongest possible terms the outrageous and shocking" attack. Clinton said she was particularly appalled that the attack took place in Benghazi, which the U.S. had helped liberate from dictator Moammar Gadhafi during the Arab Spring revolution in Libya this year.

The aftermath of the two attacks also stirred the U.S. presidential campaign, where until Wednesday, foreign policy had taken a back seat to the struggling economy.

Obama spoke shortly after the Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, criticized the administration for statements issued before and after the Cairo attacks that expressed sympathy for those insulted by the video.

"I also believe the administration was wrong to stand by a statement sympathizing with those who had breached our embassy in Egypt instead of condemning their actions," Romney told a morning news conference. "It's never too early for the United States government to condemn attacks on Americans and to defend our values."

Obama and Clinton made a rare joint visit to the State Department, where grieving colleagues of Stevens and the other three Americans killed in Benghazi gathered in a courtyard. The president also ordered U.S. flags to be flown at half-staff at government and military buildings and vessels around the world until sunset on Sept. 16. Flags had already been lowered in many places to commemorate the victims of the 9/11 attacks.

Clinton denounced those who might kill over an insulting movie.

"There is no justification for this," Clinton said. "None. Violence like this is no way to honor religion or faith and as long as there are those who would take innocent life in the name of God, the world will never know a true and lasting peace."

Underscoring the administration's frustration, Clinton wondered aloud about the attack in Benghazi, which Gadhafi had once threatened to destroy.

"This is not easy," she said. "Today, many Americans are asking, indeed I asked myself, how could this happen? How could this happen in a country we helped liberate, in a city we helped save from destruction? This question reflects just how complicated and, at times, just how confounding, the world can be."

"But we must be clear-eyed in our grief," she said, saying the attack was carried out by a "small and savage group" not representative of the Libyan people. She noted that Libyan security guards had tried to fight off the attackers, had carried Stevens' body to the hospital and led other consulate employees to safety. Several of the Libyan guards also were killed.

Stevens, a 52-year-old career diplomat, was killed when he and a group of U.S. employees went to the consulate to try to evacuate staff as the building came under attack by a mob wielding guns and rocket propelled grenades. Stevens is the first U.S. ambassador to be killed in an attack since 1979, when Ambassador Adolph Dubs was killed in Afghanistan.

Three other Americans were also killed and the State Department identified one of them as Sean Smith, an Air Force veteran who had worked as an information management officer for 10 years in posts such as Brussels, Baghdad and Pretoria. Smith was also well-known in the video game community.

The identities of the others were being withheld pending notification of relatives.

"The mission that drew Chris and Sean and their colleagues to Libya is both noble and necessary, and we and the people of Libya honor their memory by carrying it forward," Clinton said.

U.S. officials said some 50 Marines were being sent to Libya to reinforce security at U.S. diplomatic facilities.

Stevens spoke Arabic and French and had already served two tours in Libya, including running the office in Benghazi during the revolt against Gadhafi. He was confirmed as ambassador to Libya by the Senate earlier this year.

Associated Press writers Jim Kuhnhenn, Kimberly Dozier and Lolita Baldor contributed to this report.

BENGHAZI, Libya (AP) — A mob armed with guns and grenades launched a fiery attack on the U.S. Consulate, killing the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans. President Barack Obama strongly condemned the violence, vowed Wednesday to bring the killers to justice and tightened security at diplomatic posts around the world.

The attack that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens — the first U.S. ambassador to die in the line of duty since 1979 — came on Tuesday's 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist strike and presented a new foreign policy crisis for the United States in a region trying to recover from months of upheaval.

While the deadly assault was initially blamed on an anti-Islamic YouTube video, U.S. officials say the Obama administration is also investigating whether it was a planned terrorist strike to mark the anniversary of 9/11. Intelligence officials said the attack on the Benghazi consulate was too coordinated or professional to be spontaneous, according to a U.S. counterterrorism official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the incident publicly.

Libya's interim president, Mohammed el-Megarif, apologized for what he called the "cowardly" assault on the consulate, which also killed several Libyan security guards in the eastern city. Just before the Benghazi violence, protests also flared in Egypt, where crowds angry over the film climbed the walls of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and tore down an American flag, which they replaced briefly with a black, Islamist flag.

The demonstrators in Cairo cited an obscure movie made in the United States by a filmmaker who calls Islam a "cancer." Video excerpts posted on YouTube depict the Prophet Muhammad as a fraud, a womanizer and a madman in an overtly ridiculing way, showing him having sex and calling for massacres.

The brazen embassy assaults — the first on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Libya and Egypt — were signs of the lawlessness that has taken hold in the two countries after revolutions ousted their autocratic secular regimes and upended the tightly controlled police state. Islamists have emerged as powerful forces, and security forces have largely broken down.

In Libya, the volatility is further compounded by the wide availability of heavy weapons and the numerous armed militia factions that remain more powerful than security forces. Notably, an Islamic militant group known as the Omar Abdel-Rahman Brigades claimed responsibility in June for a bomb that went off outside the same U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, causing no injuries. The group at the time said the bombing was in retaliation for the killing of al-Qaida's then-number two, Abu Yahya al-Libi in a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan.

Stevens, 52, died as he and a group of embassy employees went to the consulate to try to evacuate staff during the attack late Tuesday by a mob of protesters, including gunmen armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenade, attacked.

The crowd, which numbered several thousand strong, moved on the consulate, firing in the air outside the compound. The consulate is a one-story villa located in a fenced garden in downtown Benghazi. A small contingent of Libyan security forces protecting the facility also fired in the air, trying to intimidate them, said Wanis el-Sharef, the deputy interior minister of Libya's eastern region.

But faced with the mob's superior size and firepower, the Libyan security withdrew, el-Sharef said. Gunmen stormed the building, looted its contents and torch it, he said.

By the end of the assault, much of the building was burned out and trashed. On Wednesday, Libyans wandered freely around the burned-out building, taking photos of rooms where furniture was covered in soot and overturned. Walls were scrawled with graffiti.

Details of how the Americans were killed were still being pieced together Wednesday. But according to al-Sharef's account, two distinct attacks took place.

Al-Sharef said Stevens and a consulate staffer who had stayed behind in the building were killed in the initial attack on the consulate.

The rest of the staff successfully evacuated to another building nearby, preparing to move to Benghazi Airport after daybreak to fly to the capital, Tripoli, he said.

Hours after the storming of the consulate, a separate group of gunmen attacked the other building, opening fire on the more than 30 Americans and Libyans inside. Two more Americans were killed and 32 wounded — 14 Americans and 18 Libyans, he said.

There was no immediate confirmation of al-Sharef's account.

Dr. Ziad Abu Zeid, who treated Stevens, told The Associated Press that he died of asphyxiation, apparently from smoke. In a sign of the chaos during the attack, Stevens was brought by Libyans to the Benghazi Medical Center with no other Americans, and no one at the facility knew who he was, Abu Zeid said.

Stevens was practically dead when he arrived before 1 a.m. Wednesday, and "we tried to revive him for an hour and a half, but with no success," Abu Zeid said. The ambassador was bleeding in his stomach because of the asphyxiation but had no other injuries, he said.

The State Department identified one of the other Americans killed as Sean Smith, a foreign service information management officer. The identities of the others were being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

"I strongly condemn the outrageous attack on our diplomatic facility in Benghazi," Obama said in Washington, adding the four Americans "exemplified America's commitment to freedom, justice, and partnership with nations and people around the globe."

Obama ordered increased security to protect American diplomatic personnel around world.

"Make no mistake we will work with the Libyan government to bring to justice the killers who attacked our people," he said.

Obama added: "We reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others, but there is absolutely no justification for this type of senseless violence, none."

Stevens was a career diplomat who spoke Arabic and French and had already served two tours in Libya, including running the office in Benghazi during the revolt against Gadhafi. He was confirmed as ambassador to Libya by the Senate earlier this year.

Before Tuesday, five U.S. ambassadors had been killed in the line of duty, the last being Adolph Dubs in Afghanistan in 1979, according to the State Department.

El-Megarif offered his condolences to the U.S. and also vowed to bring the culprits to justice and maintain close relations with Washington.

"We extend our apology to America, the American people and the whole world," el-Megarif said.

In Benghazi, the bloodshed stunned many Libyans, especially since Stevens was popular among many factions and politicians, including Islamists, and seen as a supporter of their uprising last year against longtime dictator Moammar Gahdafi.

The leader of Ansar al-Shariah, an armed ultraconservative Islamist group, denied any involvement in the attack.

"We never approve of killing civilians, especially those who helped us (like Ambassador Stevens)," said Youssef Jihani. "We are well-educated and religious."

The violence raised worries that further protests could break out around the Muslim world as knowledge of the anti-Islam movie spread.

So far, the reaction was limited.

About 50 protesters burned American flags outside the U.S. Embassy in Tunisia's capital Wednesday but were kept away from the building by reinforced security. And in Gaza City, dozens of protesters carrying swords, axes and black flags chanted "Shame on everyone who insults the prophet." The rally was organized by supporters of a militant group aligned with the ruling Hamas movement.

In Cairo, some 200 Islamists staged a second day of protest outside the U.S. Embassy on Wednesday, but there was no repeat of the previous day's scaling the embassy walls.

"Obama we are all Osama," chanted some of the bearded ultraconservatives, alluding to the al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

Mahmoud Mohammed, a 25-year-old factory worker, demanded a U.S. apology for the offending film and the prosecution of those behind it. "They violated the honor of the prophet and his wives, and made him out to be sex crazed. This is nonsense," he said.

The uproar over the film also poses a new test for Egypt's new Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi, who has yet to personally condemn the riot outside the U.S. Embassy in Cairo or say anything about the offending film. Many of the protesters demanded he speak out against the movie.

His spokesman, Yasser Ali, condemned the film. While the government is responsible for the security of foreign diplomatic missions, he said, it guarantees the right of peaceful protests.

"However, the state will deal firmly with any irresponsible attempts to break the law," he said.

Egypt's top prosecutor, meanwhile, has placed the names of 10 Christian Egyptians living abroad on the list of arrest-on-arrival at the nation's airports. The 10 include two clerics and a well-known, U.S.-based Christian activist who is promoting the offending film.

If arrested, the 10 would be questioned on allegations of showing contempt to religion and could possibly be charged and tried.

Afghanistan's government sought to avert an outbreak of protests. President Hamid Karzai condemned the movie, which he describes as "inhuman and insulting." Authorities also temporarily shut down access to YouTube, the video-sharing site where excerpts of the movie were posted, said Aimal Marjan, general director of Information Technology at the Ministry of Communications.

The two-hour movie that sparked the protests, titled "Innocence of Muslims," came to attention in Egypt after its trailer was dubbed into Arabic and posted on YouTube.

A man identifying himself as Sam Bacile, a 56-year-old California real estate developer, said he wrote, produced and directed the movie.

He told the AP he was an Israeli Jew and an American citizen. But Israeli officials said they had not heard of Bacile and there was no record of him being a citizen. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not permitted to share personal information with the media.

Separately, the film was being promoted by an extreme anti-Muslim Egyptian Christian campaigner in the United States.

Michael reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Esam Mohamed in Tripoli, Matthew Lee in Washington, Joseph Federman in Jerusalem and Sarah El Deeb in Cairo contributed to this report.

FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) — A military judge is to decide if a terrorism expert will testify during the trial of the Army psychiatrist charged in the deadly Fort Hood shooting rampage.

Maj. Nidal Hasan's defense team is trying to stop Evan Kohlmann from testifying at the court-martial starting in less than two weeks. They are questioning the methods Kohlmann used in his study of the case in which he concluded that Hasan is a homegrown terrorist.

Kohlmann is expected to be questioned during a pretrial hearing Thursday. He has testified for the government in more than two dozen terrorism cases.

Hasan is charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder in the November 2009 shootings at the Texas Army post.

Hasan faces the death penalty if convicted.

FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) — For the past two months, the military judge presiding over the high-profile case of the Army psychiatrist charged in the deadly 2009 Fort Hood shooting rampage has said he wanted to avoid disruptions in court.

So after Maj. Nidal Hasan showed up for a June pretrial hearing wearing a beard, a violation of Army regulations, Col. Gregory Gross banned him from the courtroom until he shaves.

Now Hasan's facial hair has become a bigger disruption than anyone might have foreseen. All hearings and the murder trial, set to start next week, were put on hold Wednesday while an appeals court considers Hasan's objections to being forcibly shaved.

The delay is frustrating for many involved in the case, although some victims' relatives say they have grown accustomed to waiting for the trial to start. It's been almost three years since the shooting rampage left 13 dead and more than two dozen wounded on the Texas Army post.

"I stopped holding my breath a long time ago as far as expecting to get any closure regarding the trial," said Leila Hunt Willingham, whose brother Jason Dean "J.D." Hunt was among those killed Nov. 5, 2009.

Gross has not allowed Hasan to stay in the courtroom, saying the beard is a disruption. However, in late July Gross said he wanted Hasan in the room during the court-martial to prevent a possible appeal on the issue if he is convicted. He said Hasan would be forcibly shaved before the trial if he didn't shave the beard himself.

Hasan, an American-born Muslim, won't shave because the beard is an expression of his faith, defense attorneys have said. Hasan also has had a premonition that his death is imminent, his attorneys said.

"He does not wish to die without a beard as he believes not having a beard is a sin," one of Hasan's attorneys wrote in his appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces.

Hasan faces the death penalty or life in prison without parole if convicted. No military death-row inmates have been executed since 1961.

Prosecutors have said Hasan grew the beard so trial witnesses would have a hard time identifying him. They have said they doubt religion is his motive, noting he was clean-shaven at the time of the shootings.

Gross told defense attorneys at a June hearing that he disagreed with their argument that Hasan's beard didn't take away from the dignity of the proceedings.

"This is a choice that Major Hasan is making," Gross said at a June hearing.

At the start of Wednesday's hearing, Gross once again found Hasan in contempt of court and fined him $1,000 for disobeying orders to shave. Hasan then was taken to a nearby room to watch the proceedings on a closed-circuit television.

Hasan had been scheduled to enter a plea Wednesday, but the court proceedings were put on hold before he could do that.

Hasan indicated he wanted to plead guilty for religious reasons, according to a defense motion. But in ruling on the motion, Gross said he would not be able to accept a guilty plea on the 13 charges of premeditated murder because the charges carry a possible death penalty, which the government is pursuing the death penalty in Hasan's case.

Hasan, 41, also is charged with 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder.

The court-martial, scheduled to start Monday with jury selection, will be on hold until the appeals court rules on Hasan's appeal to the judge's order to being shaved. Wednesday's court order that halted the proceedings gives the judge a week to respond.

Some military law experts not involved in the case said this seems to be a defense strategy.

"The defense is trying everything to delay this case, and it's frustrating that the beard issue has gone this far," said Jeffrey Addicott, a retired military attorney who is now director of the Center for Terrorism Law at St. Mary's University School of Law.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Taliban militants ambushed a Pakistani army post near the Afghan border before dawn Wednesday, killing eight soldiers, in a reminder of the threat posed by insurgents despite numerous military offensives against them.

The attack occurred in the South Waziristan tribal area, once the main stronghold for the Pakistani Taliban, a military official said. The military launched a large offensive against militants there in 2009, but insurgents still operate in the area and periodically stage attacks.

In addition to the eight soldiers killed, six others were wounded in the ambush near Ghatbadr village in the Shakai Valley, the official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media. The attack started around midnight and lasted for several hours, he said.

The assault followed the start of a new army operation to rout militants from the area, the official said. During the operation over the last two days, soldiers killed 18 militants and destroyed seven of their hideouts. Another 21 militants were wounded, according to the official.

The official initially said nine soldiers were killed but later lowered the toll to eight.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack on the post. The group's spokesman, Ahsanullah Ahsan, claimed they killed 12 soldiers and beheaded some of them.

The differing accounts could not be independently verified.

The military has conducted offensives against the Pakistani Taliban in six of the seven areas that make up Pakistan's semiautonomous tribal region along the Afghan border.

The U.S. said recently that Islamabad plans to launch an operation against the Pakistani Taliban in the last major militant sanctuary in the region, North Waziristan. But Pakistani military officials have downplayed the comments, saying they intend to slowly ratchet up the pressure on militants in North Waziristan rather than launch a sweeping offensive.

Many Pakistani Taliban fighters fled to North Waziristan and other parts of the tribal region following the 2009 army operation in South Waziristan.

The U.S. has criticized Pakistan for refusing to target militants who use North Waziristan as a base to attack coalition forces in Afghanistan, especially the so-called Haqqani network.

Pakistan has said its forces are stretched too thin by operations against the Pakistani Taliban in other parts of the tribal region, but many analysts believe Islamabad is reluctant to cross militants viewed as potential allies in Afghanistan after foreign forces withdraw.

The top commander of U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, Gen. John Allen, is scheduled to visit Pakistan on Thursday to meet with the country's army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the Pakistani military said.

When hijacked jetliners flew into the World Trade Center and Pentagon, and plummeted into a pasture in Pennsylvania 11 years ago, it exposed our Intelligence Community’s failure to use its imagination and connect the dots in determining threats to the United States.  Today, I am concerned about how much progress we have made.

As an example, this Friday I will chair a Homeland Security oversight hearing on the failure to share information and connect the dots before the 2009 terrorist attack at Fort Hood.  Both the Army and the FBI were aware of Major Hasan’s opposition to the war in Afghanistan.  The FBI knew he was in contact with al Qaeda leader Anwar Awlaki.  But nothing was done.

I recognize the success our military, the FBI, our Intelligence Community and law enforcement have had since the 9/11 attacks, especially in light of the very difficult work of determining which leads need to be closed and which need to be further investigated.  These successes should be recognized by the American people.  However, failed plots such as the underwear bomber who tried to blow up a jet on approach to Detroit on Christmas Day 2009, and the car bomb in Times Square, failed because of the incompetence of the attacker and a vigilant public, not because of intelligence or law enforcement efforts.

Today’s terrorist threats are more tactically and geographically diverse than a decade ago.  They emanate from the Middle East, from within our borders, and from Latin America, where Iran and Hezbollah have dramatically increased their presence and influence.  These operatives that send millions of dollars a month to Hezbollah to fund its terrorist operations have the ability to turn operational.  Their relationship with Mexican drug cartels combined with controlled smuggling routes across the U.S.-Mexico border accentuate this threat, especially as tensions mount between Iran, Israel and the United States.

Americais safer than it was 11 years ago, and terrorists who once plotted against us are no longer here.  Our challenge is to remain vigilant even in times of tranquility, and for our men and women charged with detecting and thwarting a terrorist strike to adapt to the ever changing landscape.

The victims of the September 11^th terrorist attacks remain in our thoughts and prayers.  May God bless their families and may God bless the United States of America.