Police kill 13 attackers in western China

BEIJING -- Police in China's western Xinjiang region shot dead 13 people, who were described by the official Xinhua News Agency as "mobsters" who rammed a truck into a police station and set off explosives.

The attack Saturday injured three officers.

The Tianshan website said in a report that no civilians were hurt in the attack in Kashgar prefecture in Xinjiang's southwest. The Xinhua News Agency said one vehicle was used, although it did not provide specific details.

Officials in the region contacted by phone either said they were unclear about the situation or refused to comment.

It was the latest in a series of attacks pointing to growing unrest in the sprawling region of Xinjiang, where the native Muslim Uighur people want more autonomy from Beijing. Last month, a market bombing killed 43 people in Xinjiang's capital, Urumqi.

Chinese authorities have blamed the attacks on extremists intent on overthrowing Beijing's rule. The government said the assailants have ties to Islamic terror groups abroad but provides little direct evidence.

China started a campaign against violence in Xinjiang, a region beset by tension between the Muslim Uighur minority and Han Chinese, after explosions killed 39 people and injured 94 on May 22. President Xi Jinping pledged to punish violence and "spare no effort" to maintain stability in the region.

The campaign will "make full use of political and legal force," including the military and armed police, focusing on religious-extremist groups, terrorist training camps and illicit manufacturing of guns and explosives, the Xinhua News Agency said at the time.

The government has sought to stem the attacks by handing down heavy punishments to people authorities say organized, led and participated in terror groups, committed arson, slayings, burglary or illegally manufactured explosives.

Earlier this month, China executed 13 people in Xinjiang for such crimes.

Uighur activists say public resentment against Beijing is fueled by an influx of settlers from the Han majority in the region, economic disenfranchisement and onerous restrictions on Uighur religious and cultural practices. China says it has made vast investments to boost the region's economy and improve living standards.

Public security authorities are investigating Saturday's attack and local social order is normal, Xinhua reported.

Xinjiang is home to more than 10 million Uighurs. Ethnic riots in 2009 in Urumqi, the provincial capital, left 197 people dead and more than 1,700 injured, according to state-run media.

Information for this article was contributed by staff writers of The Associated Press and Bloomberg News.

A Section on 06/22/2014

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