Six prisoners were treated for "minor injuries" and none of the U.S. guards was seriously hurt after the fight pitting 10 inmates against 10 U.S. guards, the officials said. The fight ended only after guards blasted detainees five times with a 12 gauge shotgun shooting rubber balls and used a grenade launcher that shot a blunt rubber object, officials said.

While guards were putting down the fight, detainees in nearby cells began rioting, destroying cameras used to monitor them, fans, florescent lights and other property, officials said.

Human rights activists decry the indefinite detention of Guantanamo detainees and accuse the United States of torture. The Pentagon insists detainees are treated humanely and not tortured, and says many dangerous al Qaeda and Taliban figures are held there.

Details of the clash emerged on the same day that the United Nations' top anti-torture body told Washington that any secret jails it ran for foreign terrorism suspects, along with the Guantanamo facility, were illegal and should be closed. The United States has refused to give U.N. human rights investigators access to the detainees.

"The detainees had slickened the floor of their block with feces, urine and soapy water in an attempt to trip the guards. They then assaulted the guards with broken light fixtures, fan blades and bits of metal," said Navy Rear Adm. Harry Harris, who commands the Guantanamo facility.

The clash took place in Camp Four, a medium-security facility with communal living arrangements, Harris said.

'LOSING THE FIGHT'

Army Col. Mike Bumgarner, in charge of detention operations, said detainees were jumping off beds on top of the guards and knocked some guards to the ground, adding: "Frankly we were losing the fight at that point."

The guards used pepper spray, then the shotgun that fired 18 small rubber balls and the M203 grenade launcher to gain control, U.S. officials said. The fighting lasted four to five minutes, they said.

Earlier in the day, officials said, two other detainees, including one found frothing at the mouth, attempted suicide by swallowing pills, and they remained unconscious in stable condition.

"Detainees at Camp Four have the most privileges and are assigned to the camp when they have demonstrated continuous compliance with camp rules. However, we consider it to be the most dangerous camp because detainees have the opportunity to plan and act out in groups," Harris said in a telephone briefing from Guantanamo.

Harris said guards had been conducting searches ordered after the detention facilities were locked down due to the suicide attempts when they saw a Camp Four inmate hanging sheets from the ceiling apparently preparing to hang himself.

Harris described this as "a ruse" to lure the guards in order to attack them.

"We trained for the possibility that a suicide attempt may be used by the detainees to create an opportunity to conduct an assault, take a hostage or kill the guard. In fact, that was exactly what was going on last night," Harris said.

There was rioting in three of five units at Camp Four, officials said. It took an hour to restore order and another hour to move detainees into a maximum security facility, officials said.

Harris described the guard force as showing "remarkable restraint in the face of considerable danger."

The Pentagon said "approximately 460 detainees" remain at Guantanamo. Officials said no detainee has ever died there, although there have been 41 suicide attempts by 25 detainees.

During his 30-minute speech, Franks took an occasional jab at the media and fellow generals for attacking Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

"We haven't got any generals here. They're all in front of TV cameras complaining about Don Rumsfeld," Franks deadpanned. "Difference is, I know what I'm talking about."

Franks staunchly defended his friend - even as he called him "grumpy" and "grouchy."

"I don't care about your politics. I don't. Don Rumsfeld is an American patriot."

Franks retired in 2003 after a 36-year career in the Army, highlighted by becoming commander of Central Command in June 2000. He received warm ovations from the 3,000 NRA members in attendance.

"It makes me think about going into politics," Franks said. "The great blessing is that thought doesn't last long."

The latest fatalities bring to seven the number of French soldiers who have died in combat since US-led and Afghan troops ousted the radical Islamic Taliban regime at the end of 2001. Four of the casualties have been members of the special forces.

Some 200 French special forces soldiers are stationed in Spin Boldak, southeastern Afghanistan, near the border with Pakistan.

Southern Afghanistan, the stronghold of the Taliban, is currently witnessing some of the heaviest fighting since the 2001 US-led invasion.

Nearly 200 militants have been killed in the past four days and 50 Afghan soldiers ambushed.

The fighting -- in which a top Taliban commander, Mullah Dadullah, has reportedly been captured -- comes just weeks before a NATO-led international force is due to take over from the US-led coalition in the hostile region.

French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie offered her condolences to the families of the dead soldiers and reaffirmed her "full support for forces committed to the struggle against terrorism in Afghanistan."

The deaths conicided with violent clashes Saturday between the military and Taliban in Helmand in which four Afghan soldiers died, according to coalition sources.

"So far, we have reports that four civilians, two attackers and a policeman have died in this raid," a senior police officer said, adding that at least 22 people had been admitted to local hospitals with bullet wounds.

"But we are searching the entire area as we do not rule out the possibility that more militants infiltrated," said A.P. Maheshwari, head of the federal reserve police force in Kashmir.

Two Islamic groups, al Mansurain and Lashkar-e-Toiba, claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call to the local Current News Service.

The militants, fighting an insurgency against New Delhi's rule, are opposed to talks between pro-India politicians and the government scheduled to start Wednesday.

They are also against an ongoing peace process between India and Pakistan, which both claim the state and hold it in parts.

In New Delhi, Home Secretary V.K. Duggal described the attack as an effort by militants to derail peace efforts in Kashmir.

"This is a normal ploy on the part of the militant outfits. Whenever a major peace initiative is undertaken in Kashmir, they will do something to either finish it completely or derail it."

A spokesman for the home ministry however said that the peace talks would continue.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the premier would visit the troubled region this week for peace talks despite the latest attack.

Singh "is looking forward to visiting Srinagar and participating in the second roundtable meeting on Kashmir scheduled for 24th and 25th May," the premier's media advisor Sanjaya Baru said.

The militants attacked a crowd of hundreds of Congress party supporters who gathered at a park in central Srinagar to honour the late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Gandhi was assassinated by a suspected Tamil rebel suicide bomber on May 21, 1991 in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. The day also marks the anniversary of death of two slain Kashmiri separatist leaders, Mirwaiz Mohammed Farooq and Abdul Gani Lone.

The crowd was thrown into confusion at the Sher-i-Kashmir park as the militants, reportedly dressed as police officers, stormed the area.

Police reinforcements arrived on the scene and attempted to rescue some of the people who tried to hide in the grass to avoid bullets, witnesses said.

The injured included Kashmir Valley police chief K. Rajindra Kumar who led the heavy security presence at the park.

The separatists have waged an insurgency against New Delhi's rule since 1989 that has claimed at least 44,000 lives, by official count.

India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars over the region since independence in 1947.

The two sides have been in peace talks since January 2004 to resolve the dispute.

Moderate separatists have held several rounds of peace talks with New Delhi but are expected to boycott the latest meeting.

Indian defence minister Pranab Mukherjee urged Pakistan to stop its help to Islamic rebels battling Indian rule in Kashmir -- a charge Islamabad denies.

"I would like to remind the authorities in Pakistan that terrorists are friends of nobody. Pakistan should condemn and isolate the terrorists," Mukherjee was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India news agency.

Separately, Indian and Pakistani officials are scheduled to meet in New Delhi Tuesday to discuss a tense standoff on the Siachen Glacier in northern Kashmir where the two sides have waged a struggle for control over a frozen wasteland termed the world's highest battlefield.

"We were able to take him into custody without incident. But we also have found that his estranged wife was found dead in the car," LeDuff told Fox.

"It's a very sad day for Baton Rouge. This is very unusual for our city," LeDuff said. "We are in total disbelief."

The suspect shot five people at the Ministry of Jesus Christ Church before kidnapping his family, LeDuff said. Three were pronounced dead at the scene, and a fourth died in a hospital.

Another shooting victim was taken to a hospital and was expected to recover, he said.

The suspect dropped off two of his children at a family member's residence after the shootings, then drove off with his wife and a newborn child, according to LeDuff.

It was not immediately clear how the suspect's wife died or what kind of weapon was used in the killings.

LeDuff added the suspect was holding his infant child when police arrived at the apartment complex.

"Officers were able to get close enough to ascertain that he was not armed at that point, and they were able to take the child into safety," he said.

The attacks in the woods at the 20,000-student university have been attributed to a combination of protective motherly instinct, squeezed habitat and, in some cases, a little too much human curiosity.

The message now: Keep your eyes peeled for deer, don't approach them, and if a wild-eyed deer starts bounding your way, run.

"Before last year, no one really had heard of this sort of thing," says Clay Nielsen, a wildlife ecologist at the university.

Nielsen believes different deer were responsible for the three attacks that sent Emery and at least three others to the hospital, mostly with minor injuries.

"It wasn't like it was one crazy animal," Nielsen says. But some of the attacks may have been avoided, he thinks, if the victims hadn't committed an absolute no-no: moving in on a fawn to pet it.

Now, with fawning season soon to peak - last year's attacks happened June 7-15 - Nielsen and other campus officials are using signs, radio spots, e-mails and fliers about the deer in Thompson Woods. Later this month, Nielsen will lead a seminar titled "Avoiding Deer-Human Encounters of the Third Kind on Campus."

The effort also includes a two-year study by Nielsen and other researchers to count the deer, pinpoint how the animals affect the campus' ecosystem and gauge what locals think of them. Nielsen says the study will offer no recommendations on what to do about the deer, leaving that difficult issue for administrators.

All of this comes too late for Emery, a secretary in the political science department who still winces when she recounts what happened to her on the June afternoon she took a shortcut through Thompson Woods.

Emery heard a rustling and saw "this deer was headed right toward me, full charge." Emery never saw any fawn, only the adult deer with eyes wide.

"I could tell it was angry, but I wasn't sure what about," she says. "I know by the time I was in the area she was really mad and going to take it all out on me. I couldn't have run if I tried."

In an instant, the deer knocked the woman to the ground and delivered a flurry of kicks. Emery, screaming, curled defensively into a ball as the snorting animal rained blows on her, slicing open one of her ears and leaving her with huge bruises and a hoofprint on her hand.

"I thought, 'This is crazy, this can't be real. I'm being attacked by a deer,'" she recalls.

The deer was scared off by passers-by. Emery has not been back in that stretch of the woods since.

While taking a shortcut through the woods this week, Stephanie Eastwood, a biochemistry major, wondered what all the fuss was about, saying deer were the least of her worries.

"Deer are docile creatures - they don't just attack," said Eastwood, 26. "I find it amusing to see the animals in the park, but all I've seen here is squirrels and snakes, and snakes bother me more."

Nielsen suspects various factors conspired in last year's attacks, including an increase in the deer population and the clearing of trees and windbreaks around the campus' edge. That shrinking habitat has forced the animals into Thompson Woods, which is 20 or so acres with hundreds of yards of paved trails.

"It's the result of having a beautiful campus that we have to deal with wildlife," Nielsen says.

Emery says she thinks differently deer these days: "When they're mad, they're vicious. They're not the pretty creatures they were to me before."