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Monday, August 04, 2008

China blames Islamic militants for killing 16 police

Monday, August 4, 2008 - 10:59 AM ET

China blames Islamic militants for killing 16 police

CHINA(CBC News): Sixteen Chinese police officers died and another 16 were wounded in an attack on a police station in Xinjiang province in the country's northwest, officials said Monday.

Investigators said two attackers drove a truck into a line of jogging officers, and then attacked with knives and explosives, the government news agency Xinhua reported.

Xinjiang, which borders Central Asia, has a Muslim majority and there have been protests and previous incidents attributed to Muslim militants. Some of the local people, the Uighurs, have sporadically resisted Chinese rule, imposed in the 1950s.

Public security officials had learned that the East Turkistan Islamic Movement planned to make an attack just before the Beijing Olympics, set to open Friday, Xinhua said.

The police said the two attackers had been arrested. One was injured.

Islamic militants were one of the main security issues for the Olympics, Games security chief Tian Yixiang said...

-- Source/continues: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/08/04/china-attack.html

Posted by Jeremy Zakis at 11:12.32
Edited on: Monday, August 04, 2008 11:15.35
Categories: Counter-Terrorism