15 Dead in Attack in China’s Xinjiang
Local Editor
A total of 15 people died in an "attack" in China's Xinjiang region on Friday, with eight rebels shot dead by police and three blowing themselves up, having killed four people, authorities said.
The incident in Aksu prefecture is the latest violence in the restive region home to mostly Muslim ethnic Uighurs.Riding motorbikes and cars carrying LNG cylinders, the group approached police officers near a park in Wushi county as they prepared to go on patrol, it said.
The Tianshan web portal, which is run by the Xinjiang government, said that as well as the 11 attackers, two police and two passersby were killed, and one assailant detained. Photos posted on the site showed a charred police van and jeep.
Xinhua, citing a police investigation, described those blasts as "organized, premeditated terrorist attacks".
The vast and resource-rich region of Xinjiang has for years been hit by occasional unrest carried out by Uighurs, which rights groups say is driven by cultural oppression, intrusive security measures and immigration by Han Chinese.
Authorities routinely attribute such incidents to "terrorists.
A spokesman for the overseas World Uyghur Congress, Dilshat Rexit, blamed the latest incident on what he called China's violent policies.
"Chinese armed officers' violent rooting out and provocation are the reason for Uighur resistance," he said in an emailed statement.
"The so-called terrorism is China's political excuse of directly shooting dead those who take a stand."
The most serious recent incident took place in Turpan last June, leaving at least 35 people dead.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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