Uzbekistan is probing whether al Qaeda may be involved in violence which has killed at least 43 people this week and destabilized Washington's key Central Asian ally, a senior official said on Thursday. "The investigation does not rule out either the involvement of terrorists... in the Islamic Hizb ut-Tahrir organization or a tie with international terrorist organizations such as al Qaeda," Prosecutor General Rashid Kadyrov told Russia's Itar-Tass news agency.
In the latest incident, a man blew himself up in a residential area of the Uzbek capital late on Wednesday in what was originally reported to have been a hostage-taking. Police later said the man had been alone. The lack of reliable information -- state TV has reported on the clashes with a 24-hour delay -- has made it hard to establish a reliable account of violence more bloody than a failed assassination bid on President Islam Karimov in 1999. Another government official, who declined to go on the record, said it was still too early in the investigation to make a direct link to al Qaeda. "(Al Qaeda) is not a pleasant organization, but this does not mean we should blindly link it with the terrorist acts (in Tashkent)," the official said. One security official, speaking anonymously and not directly involved in the probe, said one line of inquiry was a resurgence of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), many of whose members are believed to have fought in Afghanistan in 2001. Tashkent residents have remained largely remained unmoved by the violence. Some have even expressed support for attacks seen as directed against the police force, where corruption is rife.
| I'm still wondering if there's a connection between the Wana festivities and the booms and shootouts in Uzbekistan. Seems kinda coincidental not to have heard much from IMU for most of a year, then to have them pop up again twice in the space of a couple weeks. Maybe my nose is too sensitive... Maybe nothing to it... |
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