Attack in China kills 16 cops ahead of Games

A spokesman for the Beijing Games Organising Committee said he was sure athletes and spectators would be safe.

“China has focused on strengthening security and protection around Olympic venues and at the Olympics Village, so Beijing is already prepared to respond to any threat,” Sun Weide told news agency Xinhua.

A 100,000-strong security force is on standby ahead of Friday’s opening ceremony and there is a strong sense of excitement in the air.

The attack in the Muslim-populated Xinjiang region raised the security temperature ahead of the Games, as authorities had repeatedly warned that militants there were planning to sabotage the Games.

It also follows deadly bomb blasts in the southwestern city of Kunming last month and in Shanghai in May, killing a total of five people, which a Muslim militant group with ties to Xinjiang claimed responsibility for.

The Chinese organisers of the Games said they were checking for any link between Monday’s attack and the Olympics, but immediately sought to reassure the world about security arrangements for the event.

“We have strengthened security work in all Olympic venues and in the Olympic village. We are well-prepared in security for the upcoming Games,” Beijing Olympic organising committee spokesman Sun Weide said.

According to the official version of the attack published in the state-run media, two assailants in Xinjiang’s famed Silk Road city of Kashgar killed 16 policemen and injured another 16.

The pair drove a truck at the police officers who were jogging near their barracks, the Xinhua news agency said.

After the truck hit a roadside pole, the two got off and threw home-made explosives at the barracks, then moved in to hack at police officers with knives, Xinhua reported, adding that both attackers were arrested.

Xinhua did not identify who the terrorists may be affiliated to, but China has said previously that Muslim groups seeking independence for Xinjiang and the creation of “East Turkestan” were a major security threat.

Xinjiang, a vast area that borders Central Asia, has about 8.3 million ethnic Muslim Uighurs , and many are unhappy with what they say has been decades of repressive Communist Chinese rule.

The East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), which reportedly operates inside Xinjiang and in neighbouring Afghanistan, is listed by China, the United States and the United Nations as a terrorist organisation.

However exiled Uighur dissidents and some human rights groups say China’s claims that the ETIM is a major threat are exaggerated.

Last month, a group calling itself the Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP) claimed credit for the deadly bus blasts in Shanghai and Kunming. Some experts believe TIP is part of ETIM.

After raising the alarm about Olympic terrorist attacks, China denied the TIP carried out those attacks, but said nothing more as to who may be responsible.