WASHINGTON, October 16 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The Washington sniper hunt intensified Wednesday, October 16, with the military set to help the efforts to catch the serial killer and ease mounting public alarm after nine people have been killed, as daily life is turning into a near assault course for residents of the Washington area.

The U.S. Army is to provide aircraft with sensitive surveillance equipment that could track the sniper even if he opens fire under cover of darkness, as he did with his latest victim on Monday, October 14, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

The U.S. military is banned from domestic law enforcement and using its surveillance equipment could reflect a growing concern over the sniper who has been on the loose since October 2.

Almost 2,000 police men from the states of Virginia and Maryland as well as the city of Washington and federal agents are already hunting for the sniper who has killed each victim, seemingly chosen at random, with a single shot.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld gave approval for the army support on Tuesday, October 15, just hours after an FBI employee, Linda Franklin, was confirmed as the ninth victim. Franklin was shot on Monday night in a Virginia shopping mall car park.

The killer again slipped through a huge security dragnet unleashed within minutes of the shooting in Falls Church, but police believe they have secured vital new clues as to the sniper's identity, AFP said.

Media reports said at least one witnesses saw the killer shoot his victim for the first time.

Police, who have given little information on the success of their hunt, have refused to confirm the reports.

But they have released composite images of a white van spotted at the scene of some of the shootings.

"A lot of white vans have been stopped over the past 24 hours," said Charles Moose, chief of police for Montgomery county in Maryland, who is coordinating the hunt.

The light-colored van has a ladder rack on the roof and possibly a tail light that does not work.

Police were also hopeful the killer's image might have been captured by video surveillance cameras operating in the shopping center Monday.

Some witnesses have reported that an olive-skinned man may have been at the wheel of the van, police said.

Amid the ongoing nervousness caused by the shootings, the public reported scores of sightings of vans while anything resembling a single shot has set off police alarms.

Many schools in the region have been keeping children indoors during school hours since October 2.

Since four of the 11 attacks occurred at filling stations, motorists are increasingly wary of getting gas in the districts where the killings were carried out.

"For most area residents the latest killing only reinforced a sense of fear and imprisonment," said the Washington Post in an editorial which urged school authorities to find a way to let children resume normal life.

On Tuesday October 16, the House of Representatives passed a bill tightening controls on gun sales, while the White House dismissed calls by gun-control advocates for a national ballistic database of weapons sold in the United States.

The House bill seeks to identify people with a history of mental illness or criminals ahead of the purchase of firearms.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer challenged the use of a national database, saying that the ballistic "fingerprint" of a gun could be modified over time and was easily changed.