20 years since Waco 'massacre'

Twenty years ago on April 19, the 50-day "Waco siege", also known as the "Waco massacre", ended violently with a fire that engulfed Mount Carmel Center, home of the religious group Branch Davidian, outside of Waco, Texas. Seventy-six people, including more than 20 children and the sect leader, David Koresh, lost their lives.

FBI agents, backed by the US army's secret Delta Force, attacked the house occupied by followers of the religious sect. The agents used tanks to punch holes in the structure and pumped in tear gas. A fire swept the compound and killed most of the victims, but a number were fatally shot.

The siege began on Feb 28, 1993, when agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms raided the ranch at Mount Carmel, attempting to execute a search warrant. There had long been allegations of child abuse and illegal weaponry within the compound.

The agents' arrival precipitated an intense gunbattle lasting nearly two hours in which six people were killed. The Branch Davidians are a religious group that originated in 1955 from a schism in the Davidian Seventh Day Adventists, a reform movement that began as an offshoot of the Seventh-day Adventist Church around 1930.

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