Terrorist Attacks Kill 8 in Northwestern China
Beijing, China (August 10,2008) — A series of bomb attacks has rocked the Northwestern Chinese province of Xinjiang. News reports from China’s state-run Xinhua service indicated that 8 people were killed in the most recent attack on Sunday, August 10. The early morning assault involved an attack against police and government buildings using homemade explosives and small arms. Among the dead was a security guard posted at one of the facilities. 2 civilians and 2 police officers were also wounded in that attack. Authorities said 15 people — using explosives made of pipes, gas canisters and liquid gas tanks — took part in 12 bombings.
Another bombing on Sunday morning shattered windows and scattered debris into the streets at Hualin Market in Kuqa County.
In the late morning, police located five of the attackers hiding in a nearby market stall and shot two of them dead. The other three committed suicide, Xinhua said.
This is the latest in a series of recent attacks against police personnel in the restive province. On August 4, a separate attack claimed the lives of 16 officers, when militants crashed a truck into a procession of police and then opened fire with weapons.
In 1992, there were a series of deadly car bombings in in the provincial capital of Urumqi. Officials blamed those attacks on Uighur ethnic minority groups seeking an independent Muslim state.
Last month, officials calaim that they disrupted five terrorist groups in the area that allegedly were plotting to sabotage the Summer Olympics in Beijing, about 1,740 miles (2,800 km) from Kuqa County.
