Pentagon officials say their preliminary count of the number of people killed in Tuesday's terrorist attack on the defense department is 190. That estimate comes as recovery teams continue to remove bodies from the rubble.
A senior Pentagon official says the preliminary death count of 190 breaks down this way - 126 fatalities among Pentagon staff, both military and civilian, plus 64 people aboard the hijacked plane that slammed into the building.
Both the army and navy suffered dozens of casualties while the air force and marine corps report no deaths among their personnel. The highest-ranking fatality is understood to be a three-star army general.
Recovery crews are still in the process of removing bodies from the debris.
But that operation was suspended early Thursday after authorities reported receiving a bomb threat. A Pentagon spokesman says the threat claimed the bomb was located where the hijacked American Airlines plane slammed into the building. Work crews were removed from the area for about two hours before they were allowed back in.
Meanwhile, authorities have reopened a portion of the Pentagon closed in the aftermath of the terrorist attack.
Reporters who toured the area early Thursday encountered scattered pools formed by water cascading down stairways and through ceiling holes cut by firefighters who had fought stubborn roof blazes. There were also burn marks on ceilings, soot-stained walls, and piles of broken glass. Pentagon officials have said they have no hope of finding any survivors trapped in the damaged section of the building. They say anyone who may have survived the impact of the plane and the subsequent collapse of that portion of the structure could not have survived the fire that followed.