Shooting continues, 500 dead in Uzbekistan uprising

Sporadic shooting continued today in an eastern Uzbek city where an uprising sparked a crackdown by security forces that left up to 500 people dead, and a human rights group reported that clashes in another town killed an additional 200 people.

The spreading unrest in a region bordering Kyrgyzstan – the worst since Uzbekistan gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 – also left 11 people dead in clashes yesterday in a third town and sparked a rampage by residents in a fourth town on Saturday, witnesses said.