Chinese police kill 5 in attack
KUQA, CHINA — Attackers hurled homemade bombs at government buildings early today in western China, wounding three officers, state media said, amid tightened security after an attack days before the Beijing Olympics opened and threats by a militant group to disrupt the Games.
It was unclear how many assailants were involved in the predawn explosions in Kuqa, a county in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region, but the official New China News Agency said police killed five suspects.
The bombings are the second attack in Xinjiang in a week. Two men on Monday rammed a truck and threw explosives and stabbed paramilitary police officers, killing 16.
Together the acts mark a dramatic uptick in violence in Xinjiang, home to Uighurs, a Turkic Muslim minority that has waged a sputtering rebellion against Chinese rule The violence largely has been suppressed over the last decade.
Citing the public security bureau of Xinjiang, the news agency said the attackers flung homemade explosives from inside a taxi.
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