Beijing - China on Monday said a 15-year-old girl who was
treated in hospital for injuries was a suspect in a series of
terrorist attacks that left 12 people dead in its central Asian
region of Xinjiang.
Paramilitary police shot dead eight suspected terrorists while two
others 'blew themselves up' after the attacks in Xinjiang's Kuqa
county town, the official Xinhua news agency said.
The girl, named as Hailiqiemu Abulizi, was injured while throwing
an explosive device and then 'abandoned by her accomplices who drove
away after seeing her injured by her own bombing,' the agency quoted
a local police officer as saying.
Earlier reports said police believed that 15 people took part in
the attacks on police and government buildings in the early hours on
Sunday.
The reports said two suspects were arrested and three unidentified
attackers were on the run, but it was not clear if the girl was among
those five.
Doctors in Kuqa operated on the girl after she was admitted with
17 wounds including fractures to her left leg and foot, the agency
said.
Officials from Xinjiang's Aksu prefecture, which administers Kuqa,
said all the attackers were members of the Uighur ethnic group from
Kuqa county and other areas.
But no clear evidence was found connecting the bombings in Kuqa to
'East Turkestan separatists,' the agency quoted the officials at a
press conference in Kuqa as saying.
East Turkestan is the name still given to Xinjiang by Uighurs
seeking an independent state there.
China has linked some previous attacks to the East Turkestan
Islamic Movement (ETIM), which is listed as an international
terrorist group by the United States and the United Nations.
It was also 'unclear' if the bombings in Kuqa were connected with
another attack that killed 16 paramilitary police nearby Kashgar city
last week, Hasimu, the head of the Aksu government, was quoted as
saying. Like many Uighurs, Hasimu just goes by one name.
The Kuqa attacks killed a security guard and injured five others,
including two policemen, officials said.
One Uighur civilian who was injured in the attacks died in
hospital on Monday, Hasimu said.
Several explosions and sporadic rifle fire rocked Kuqa between
about 2:30 am and 4:00 am on Sunday.
Police said 'suicide bombers' attacked offices of the local
government and the public security bureau.
They recorded 12 separate bombings in the county using devices
made from bent pipes, gas canisters and liquid gas tanks, the agency
said.
Police seized dozens of unexploded bombs and rescued 13 civilians,
it said without elaborating.
A foreigner in Kuqa told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa via telephone
that there were nearly 20 strong explosions and flashes of light were
visible, but no fire or smoke.
He said an aircraft flew overhead before the blasts occurred.
'The rifle fire began a half hour after the first explosion,' the
witness told dpa. It was followed within minutes by explosions.
Xinjiang is known for unrest and is home to 8 million Uighurs, a
Turkic-speaking, mainly Muslim ethnic group that has opposed Chinese
rule.
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