Beijing: Chinese police have shot dead 13 'thugs' in the restive autonomous region of Xinjiang after they drove into a police building and set off an explosion.
'Today thugs crashed a car into the public security building of Kargilik county in Xinjiang's Kashgar prefecture and set off an explosion. Police took decisive action and shot dead 13 thugs,' the regional government website Tianshan reported on Saturday.
Three police officers suffered injuries but no other casualties occurred, the report said, without providing further details. It was unclear if the attackers used one or more explosive devices.
Xinjiang, a vast and resource-rich region in China's far west that is home to the mainly Muslim Uighur ethnic minority, has had a series of violent attacks in recent years.
Authorities have vowed to crack down in recent weeks and announced a number of arrests and sentences after several high-profile attacks.
In May, 39 people were killed, along with four attackers, and more than 90 wounded when assailants threw explosives and ploughed two off-road vehicles through a crowd at a market in the regional capital Urumqi.
In March, attackers went on a stabbing spree at a railway station in the south-western city of Kunming and killed 29 people and wounded 143.
That incident, one of the first to take place outside Xinjiang but blamed on militants from the region, was dubbed China's '9/11' by state media.
AFP
Entities 0 Name: Xinjiang Count: 4 1 Name: China Count: 2 2 Name: Beijing Count: 1 3 Name: Tianshan Count: 1 4 Name: Kashgar Count: 1 5 Name: Urumqi Count: 1 6 Name: Kunming Count: 1 7 Name: Kargilik county Count: 1 8 Name: Muslim Uighur Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/1lTdIfm Title: Kenya Says Security Forces Killed 5 Mpeketoni Suspects Description: With locals terrified after a brutal attack earlier this week, Kenyan officials say they found and killed several suspects. The attacks that killed at least 60 people happened as the town of Mpeketoni held a World Cup viewing party Sunday. This marks the deadliest attack in Kenya since the Nairobi mall attack attacks in September.
