US and Israeli embassies bombed in Tashkent

Suspected suicide bombers attacked the US and Israeli embassies in the Uzbekistan capital Tashkent today.

Russia’s Interfax news agency said the blast at the US Embassy had been caused by a suicide bomber with explosives attached to his waist.

Another blast hit the general prosecutor’s office and caused "deaths", a news agency reported from the former Soviet Central Asian state.

The blasts came as the first 15 suspects were standing trial for a wave of violence earlier this year that left at least 47 people dead.

Those attacks had included Central Asia’s first-ever suicide bombings.

Israel Radio said two Uzbek workers at the embassy had been killed but there were no Israeli casualties.

Several of the 15 on trial in Tashkent have said that the US and Israeli embassies had been intended targets in a wave of explosions, officials said.