Beijing: Fifteen people, including 11 “mobsters”, were killed and 14 others injured in a terrorist attack in China's restive Xinjiang province today. The attack occurred Shache County in the northwestern province, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Tianshan news website said that the attackers used vehicles, knives and explosives in the assault. It also claimed that the dead included 11 of the attackers branded as “mobsters” by state media.
Xinjiang, home to ethnic Uygur Muslims, has been restive for several years due to conflicts between locals and migrant Han Chinese from other provinces.
The region has experienced a spate of violent attacks in the last few years which China blames on the al-Qaeda-backed East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM). The violence in Xinjiang and some parts of the country have resulted in scores of deaths.
Xinhua said in today's attack “mobsters” threw explosive devices and attacked civilians with knives at a food street in the county around 1:30 pm (local time). Police patrolling nearby killed 11 of them.
A number of explosive devices, knives and axes were found at the scene. The injured are being treated at local hospitals. In July this year, a group of militants armed with knives and axes killed 37 people in Shache, Kashgar Prefecture in the province.
A local court sentenced 12 of the terrorists to death and 15 others to death with a two-year reprieve in October.
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