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Clash in China’s Xinjiang Kills 16

Clash in China’s Xinjiang Kills 16
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Local Editor

Sixteen people were killed in a clash in China's Xinjiang region, home to the mostly Muslim Uighur ethnic minority, reports said Monday, less than two months after a fiery attack in Tiananmen Square.

Clash in China’s Xinjiang Kills 16The official tianshannet news agencies claimed that "the police attempting to detain criminal suspects in Shufu county near the Silk Road city of Kashgar, deep in far western China, were attacked by several thugs armed with explosive devices and knives."

Two police officers were killed and 14 of the people were shot dead on Sunday, it said.

The incident comes less than two months after an attack in Tiananmen Square, the symbolic heart of the Chinese state, when according to police, three Xinjiang Uighurs ploughed into crowds of tourists, killing two people and injuring 40, before crashing outside the Forbidden City and setting their vehicle ablaze.
The three attackers - named by authorities as Usmen Hasan, his wife and his mother - all died.

Beijing described the assault, the first blamed on Uighurs outside Xinjiang, as "terrorism" and said separatists backed by the militant East "Turkestan Islamic Movement" were responsible.
Xinjiang, a vast area bordering Pakistan and Central Asia in China's far west, beyond the furthest reaches of the Great Wall.

For years it has seen sporadic unrest by Uighurs which rights groups say is driven by cultural oppression and intrusive security measures but China attributes to extremist religion, terrorism and separatism.

A total of 11 people - nine attackers and two auxiliary police officers - were killed in an attack on a police station in Serikbuya township near Kashgar last month, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

Another incident in June left 35 people dead, and 139 people have been arrested in recent months for spreading jihadist ideology.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team