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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| Attack in Western China Leaves at Least 15 People Dead |
| 2014-11-30 |
| [NY Times] The police in Xinjiang, the volatile region of western China, rubbed out 11 members of a gang who killed four people and maimed 14 in an attack on a street lined with restaurants and food stalls, official Chinese media said Saturday. The assailants drove to the site of the attack in Shache County on Friday afternoon, then lobbed explosives into the street and slashed people, said Xinhua, the official news agency, citing Xinjiang government officials. Police officers on patrol nearby shot the attackers, Xinhua said, and recovered detonation devices, broadswords and hatchets at the scene. The report did not say if any of the attackers survived. The Xinhua report called the perpetrators "thugs" and did not remark on their motives or describe their ethnicity, noting that the authorities were still investigating the attack. But almost invariably the Chinese government has ascribed similar attacks in the past to ethnic Uighur separatists and Islamic holy warriors seeking to turn Xinjiang into an independent homeland. Advocates of Uighur self-determination, however, have said the Chinese Communist Party's own policies that repress Uighur religious life and autonomy have exacerbated tensions between Uighurs and the Han majority. More than 400 people have been killed in unrest across Xinjiang over the last year, many by members of the security forces. |
| Posted by:Fred |