Up to 23 killed as Tashkent terror battles continue

CLASHES between police and suspected terrorists, including two suicide bombers, killed at least 23 people yesterday in a third day of violence in the capital of Uzbekistan, authorities said.

Attacks on Sunday and Monday had killed another 19 people and wounded 26 in the worst unrest in this majority Muslim country since the secular government became a staunch American ally after the September 11, 2001, atrocities. Uzbekistan hosts hundreds of American troops at a tightly secured military base near the Afghan border.

Uzbek forces also laid siege to a group of terror suspects near the president’s residence.

There were reports of explosions and shootings in the city throughout the day.

When police stopped a car in a Tashkent suburb, two terrorists jumped out and detonated explosive-laden belts, killing themselves. Three policemen died and five others were injured.

Police killed eight alleged terrorists who had attacked a traffic checkpoint on the outskirts of the capital.

Near President Islam Karimov’s official residence, troops cornered a number of terrorists and were trying to “expose and exterminate” them, Foreign Ministry spokesman Ilkhom Zakirov said.

Oleg Bichenov, a deputy police chief, claimed authorities had “destroyed” nearly all of them.

The operation was one of several under way in the capital and the surrounding area yesterday, said Svetlana Atikova, spokeswoman for the Prosecutor-General’s office. Mr Zakirov said police used trucks and an armoured personnel carrier to block vehicles along the road to Mr Karimov’s residence.