Serial explosions kill two in China's remote Xinjiang

[GHATAK]

Serial explosions kill two in China's remote Xinjiang


URUMQI -- Two persons were confirmed dead in a series of explosions that rocked Kuqa county in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region early Sunday morning, local sources said.

Casualties of the incident may rise, the sources said.

Police are searching for suspects, local sources said. At least four or five suspects were killed or injured during the process, the sources said.

The explosions occurred between 3:20 am and 4:00 am in downtown Kuqa, a major town in southern Xinjiang, the witnesses said, adding they saw flashes of fire and heard sporadic gunshots after the explosions.

Police has cordoned off the area where the explosions occurred, the witnesses said.
Local military sources confirmed the incident and said the military force have been put on alert.

Kuqa is the most populous county of Aksu prefecture. It has a population of about 400,000. The seat of Kuqa county is about 740 kilometers from Urumqi, the regional capital.

A Xinhua reporter is on the way to Kuqa from Urumqi.

The incident follows an attack on border police in Kashi Monday, resulting in the death of 16 police officers and the injury of 16 others.

A man drove a truck into a team of more than 70 police officers who were doing regular morning exercise outside the police station. At the same time, another man threw an explosive device toward the gate of the police station and brandished a knife at officers who had been run over by the truck.

The two attackers were detained on the spot.

Xinjiang police have described the attack as an well-planned terrorist attack.

Liu Yaohua, chief of the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau, said the explosive devices and a home-made gun seized at the site are similar to those found at a terrorist training camp destroyed by Xinjiang police in January 1. Booklets advocating "Holy War" were also found at the site.

Liu, however, said there were still no sufficient evidences at the moment that the attack was committed by the East Turkistan Liberation Organization or the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), two terrorist groups aimed secede Xinjiang from China.

ETIM has openly called for terrorist attacks in Xinjiang to turn 2008 into a year of terror for China.

 

[GHATAK]

AFP: Police attacked in China's Muslim northwest

BEIJING (AFP) — Eight people died in bombings and fierce clashes between police and attackers in China's remote northwest Sunday, state media reported, the second outbreak of deadly violence there in under a week.

Soldiers were called in to secure the town of Kuqa in Xinjiang, a Muslim-populated region that is home to what China says are Islamic terrorists intent on turning the nation's Olympic celebrations into mourning.

Chinese authorities did not identify who the attackers were in Sunday's assault, but said they targeted police and government offices, and that some of them killed themselves when confronted by security forces.

Seven of the attackers died in the violence, while one security guard was killed, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The clashes began with assailants setting off an explosion at the Kuqa police station, with that blast killing the security guard as well as injuring two policemen and two civilians, according to Xinhua.

Five "bombers" were found hiding in a market a few hours later. Police shot two of them dead, as the attackers threw home-made explosives. Three of the attackers "blew themselves up," Xinhua reported without elaborating.

Local authorities refused to comment when contacted by AFP, but a resident confirmed Xinhua's report that the military and police had quickly locked down the centre of Kuqa, a city of 400,000 people.

"Don't come today, the town centre is closed," a receptionist at the Kuqa Hotel told AFP by phone.

It was the second deadly assault in less than a week in Xinjiang, a vast area that borders central Asia.

Two alleged Muslim militants using explosives and knives to attack policemen out jogging in the Xinjiang town of Kashgar on August 4, leaving 16 dead and 16 wounded.

China blamed that attack, which occurred four days before the start of the Beijing Olympics, on Islamic militant Uighur separatists.

Xinjiang has about 8.3 million ethnic Muslim Uighurs, many of whom express anger at what they say have been decades of repressive Communist Chinese rule.

Two short-lived East Turkestan republics emerged in Xinjiang in the 1930s and 1940s, when Chinese central government control was weakened by civil war and Japanese invasion.

China has repeatedly accused Uighur militants of the banned East Turkestan Islamic Movement of plotting attacks on the Olympics and has implemented sweeping security in Xinjiang and in Beijing in the lead-up the Games.

"We can see clearly that these forces are trying to wage a psychological and violent battle against the Olympics," said Shi Dagang, Communist Party secretary of Kashgar, last week following the attack there.

"They want to turn the year 2008 into a year of mourning for China."

Uighur separatists in Xinjiang have also released two video statements threatening to attack the Olympics.

But Olympic organisers sought to reassure the hundreds of thousands of foreigners in China to attend the Games that Sunday's attack should be of no concern for them.

"I do not believe this will have an impact on the Olympic Games.... I do not think it is related to the Olympics," Wang Wei, vice president of the organising committee for the Games, told reporters in Beijing.

He emphasised that security had already been stepped up in Xinjiang.

Kuqa is about 740 kilometres (460 miles) from Urumqi, the regional capital of Xinjiang, and more than 3,000 kilometres from Beijing.

 

[GHATAK]

Beijing Olympics: Eight dead after bombing in western China mars opening weekend of Olympic games | World news | guardian.co.uk

A gun battle and attempted tricycle bombing claimed eight lives in western China today in an apparent attempt by Islamic separatist groups to steal global attention from the Beijing Olympics.

Police shot dead seven alleged militants, a security guard was killed and two police cars destroyed in the pre-dawn attack in Kuqa, a city in the Xinjiang region that borders Afghanistan, Pakistan and several other central Asian states.

According to the state news agency, Xinhua, the bombers drove a tricycle laden with explosives into the yard of a police station, wounding two officers. They lobbed homemade explosives at the local office of industry and commerce, officials said.

The clashes come less than a week after Xinjiang witnessed the deadliest attack on Chinese security personnel in a decade. Last Monday, two alleged Muslim jihadists in Kashgar droved a lorry at high speed into a rank of jogging paramilarites, then killed the survivors with bombs and knives, eventually claiming 16 lives.

The authorities linked the earlier attack to threats made by three separatist groups who want to create an "East Turkistan" homeland for ethnic Muslim Uighurs in the region.

On Thursday, a previously unknown group calling itself the Turkistan Islamic party released a video threatening to attack buses, trains and planes during Olympic fortnight.

Kuqa is more than 3,000 kilometres from Beijing, but Olympic organisers have identified Uighur "terrorists" as the main threat to the games. They sought to reassure athletes, journalists and tourists that Sunday's attack would not disrupt the sports event.

"I do not believe this will have an impact on the Olympic games," said Wang Wei, the vice president of the games' organising committee. He blamed the assaults on "East Turkistan terrorists".

Overseas Uighur grops claim the Chinese government is exaggerating the threat posed by separatist extremists as an excuse to impose its will on the Muslim population in Xinjiang.

"The goal of our organisation, and of the vast majority of Uighurs around the world, is to peacefully resolve the problems facing Uighurs in East Turkistan," said the US-based Uighur freedom movement leader Rebiya Kadeer. "We advocate the principle of non-violence, and the promotion of freedom, democracy and human rights through peaceful means. We also sincerely hope for a peaceful Olympic games."

She accused the Chinese government of a heavy-handed crackdown in Kashgar and throughout East Turkistan in the name of the Olympics, saying Uighurs had experienced higher rates of execution and detention, in addition to forced relocation, police monitoring, passport confiscation, and the destruction of places of worship.

George Bush used his visit to Beijing for the opening ceremony to raise the issue of religious freedom and improved human rights. Before meeting the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, and watching swimmer Michael Phelps win gold in the 400-metre individual medley. The US president and his wife attended a church service in the Chinese capital to underline his message.

"Laura and I just had the great joy and privilege of worshipping here in Beijing, China," he said as parishioners exited to Onward Christian Soldiers. "You know, it just goes to show that God is universal, and God is love, and no state, man or woman should fear the influence of loving religion."

But the authorities remain concerned about extremist groups. More than 100,000 police and paramilitaries have been deployed in the host city - along with 300,000 surveillance cameras - in one of the biggest security operations ever mounted in China.

They were unable, however, to prevent the apparently random murder on Saturday of the father-in-law of the US men's volleyball coach. Todd Bachman was stabbed to death and his wife Barbara and a Chinese guide were seriously wounded at Beijing's 13th-century Drum Tower. The killer, 47-year-old Tang Yongming, leapt to his death after the attack.

His motive remains a mystery. Tang - who recently retired from a job at a factory in the eastern city of Hangzhou, in Zhejiang province - had arrived in Beijing on August 1. The 47-year-old, who divorced two years ago, had no criminal record.

"His neighbors said they hadn't seen any abnormal behaviour from him before left Hangzhou," said a spokesman for the Zhejiang public security bureau.

Bush said he was saddened by the stabbing, but thanked his Chinese counterpart for responding with speed and sympathy to the attack. "I appreciate that a lot," Bush told Hu.