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Another Uzbekistan boom
Hat tip LGF. al-RootersAn explosion ripped through an outlying district of the Uzbek capital Tashkent Wednesday, causing casualties, Russiaâs Interfax news agency reported. The agency quoted an unnamed source as saying the blast occurred in the Sabidrakhim district in the southwest of the capital. It said the number of casualties was being checked but gave no more details. The city has been in the grip of two days of violence which has killed more than 40 people. Authorities blamed radical Islamist groups for a series of explosions Monday which killed 19 people. Twenty-three died Tuesday, when security forces besieged a suspected Islamic militant hideout. Officials in Tashkent were not immediately able to comment on the latest report. Russiaâs Itar-Tass news agency, quoting sources in the State Prosecutorâs Office, had earlier reported that 30 people had been detained in the past 48 hours and charged under anti-terrorism laws.
Update: A grenade that was set up as a booby trap detonated Wednesday night when a police patrol tried to enter the gate of a house in Tashkent, leading to a standoff in which militants took an unknown number of hostages, a police major at the scene said. A second officer said about 20 militants were holding "many" hostages in the house. He said special police forces surrounded the area but were afraid to launch an assault out of fear the hostages could be harmed. Neither of the officers would give their names or give details about whether anyone had been killed or wounded. The Interfax news agency said there were an unknown number of casualties in the blast in the Sabir-Rakhimovski district of Tashkent, about a half mile from the Chorsu bazaar where suicide bombers struck Monday. Russia's Channel One television reported three people were wounded.
Posted by: Steve from Relto 2004-03-31 |
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