Blasts rock restive Chinese region

Explosions rocked a county in western China, killing at least two people amid tightened security following an attack last week before the start of the Beijing Olympics.

The early morning explosions occurred in Kuqa county in the south of the Muslim region of Xinjiang yesterday, said a woman who was on duty at the emergency unit of the Kuqa People’s Hospital.

“There were several explosions in several places in the county seat of Kuqa this morning and we heard them from the hospital,” said the woman, who would only give her last name, Tian. She said at least one man was pronounced dead upon arrival while several other people were in critical condition.

The official Xinhua News Agency said at least two people were killed, and cited witnesses as saying they saw flashes of fire and heard gunshots following the explosions, which took place between 3.20 and 4am local time (8.20-9pm).

Xinhua said local military sources confirmed the incident and said they had deployed forces to the area, while police sealed off the area where the explosions occurred.

The latest violence comes after two Americans closely linked to the US Olympic volleyball team were stabbed, one fatally, in a bizarre attack in the Chinese capital on the first day of the Beijing Olympics yesterday.

Already tight security in Xinjiang was increased in the past week after assailants killed 16 border police and wounded 16 others in the city of Kashgar on Monday when they rammed a stolen truck into the group before tossing home-made bombs and stabbing them.

The explosions also come after an Islamic group seeking independence for Xinjiang province threatened on Thursday to attack buses, trains and planes during the two-week Olympic competition.

A video purportedly made by the Turkistan Islamic Party, a militant group seeking independence for Xinjiang, was released with threats of attacks during the Olympics. The group is believed to be based across the border in Pakistan, where security experts say core members have received training from al Qaida.

Xinjiang is a massive, rugged territory – one-sixth of China’s land mass – that is home to the Uighurs, a Muslim minority with a long history of tense relations with the Chinese. The Uighurs, with a population of about eight million, have complained that the communist government has been restricting their religion and Turkic culture.

Beijing has accused Uighur groups of using terrorism in a violent campaign to split Xinjiang from the rest of the country. China’s state-run media have reported sporadic bombings, shootings and riots in the territory over the years, but the dispatches are often sketchy and difficult to verify.

Xinhua said the pre-dawn explosions rocked the downtown area of Kuqa, 460 miles from Urumqi, the regional capital. Kuqa, a county of 400,000 people, is a popular tourist destination in Xinjiang and is rich in oil and gas resources.