Police arrested the leader of an armed militia which has occupied a wildlife refuge in Oregon after a shoot-out in which one person was killed.
Ammon Bundy and four others who had occupied the refuge this month were arrested after temporarily leaving the site.
The group had taken over Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon in protest of the jailing of two ranchers who set fire to federal land.
The FBI said in a statement that Mr Bundy, 40, was arrested on a highway along with his brother Ryan Bundy, 43, Bryan Cavalier, 44, Shawna Cox, 59, and Ryan Walen Payne, 32.
Two other activists connected to the group, Joseph Donald O’Shaughnessy, 45, and Peter Santilli, 50, were later arrested in Burns, Oregon.
The person who was killed in a shoot-out with officers has not been officially identified but local media reports named him as Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, a spokesman for the group.
Each of the defendants faces a charge of conspiracy to impede police from discharging their official duties through the use of force, intimidation, or threats, the FBI said.
Mr Bundy was on his way to a community meeting in John Day, Oregon, where he was scheduled to be a guest speaker, when officers stopped his car.
The militia group occupied the refuge on 2 January to protest against the imprisonment of two ranchers in rural Harney County.
Dwight and Steven Hammond had set fires on federal land in 2001 and 2006 apparently to clear invasive plants and protect their land from wildfires. They were jailed for four years.
Meanwhile, two people have been killed and three others wounded in a shooting at a homeless encampment in Seattle.
Shots were fired yesterday evening in an area known locally as ‘The Jungle’. A man and woman were killed and three others hospiatlised with injuries.
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