China Unrest

KUQA, China (AP) — Two women were among a squad of assailants that hurled homemade bombs at government buildings and police this week in violence that left 12 people dead in a Muslim region of China, officials said Monday. Police were still investigating whether the attackers belonged to an al-Qaeda-linked group that has threatened to disrupt the Olympic Games underway in Beijing, some 1,740 miles to the east, the official said. Tensions in Xinjiang have been simmering for decades between the Muslim minority Uighur people and the majority Han Chinese, but the direct involvement of women in perpetrating the violence is highly unusual. Authorities said 15 people launched attacks on 17 sites Sunday in Kuqa city and that ten assailants, one security guard and a passerby were killed. The attacks targeted government buildings, a police station and Han Chinese-owned shops.

Four security guards were stabbed today in China's restive Xinjiang region, state-run Xinhua reports. The news agency reports three of the guards died in the attack. "The attack was the third in eight days in Xinjiang, a vast desert region bordering central Asia that is experiencing its biggest spike in violence in years," AFP reports.