QUOTE OF THE DAY

“It was mayhem.”

Hasson Abu Faisal, an activist in Aleppo, Syria, where government aircraft struck a busy market in a rebel-held district, killing dozens Article, 9A

China’s Xi sees long fight in restive area

HONG KONG - President Xi Jinping of China said Thursday that his government must prepare itself for a long-term fight against what he called separatist forces in the country’s Xinjiang region after assailants with knives and a bomb killed one person and injured at least 79 at a railway station Wednesday in Urumqi, the regional capital.

At least two of the assailants, who attacked bystanders with knives before setting off an explosive device outside Urumqi’s South Station, were killed, raising the death toll to three, the official People’s Daily reported.

The attack happened at the conclusion of a four-day visit to Xinjiang by Xi, his first since taking over as the country’s top leader in November 2012. During his visit, Xi stressed the central government’s efforts to quell ethnic tensions in the region, where many in the Uighur minority feel increasingly alienated from wider Chinese society.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but analysts said it appeared to have been the work of militant Uighur separatists.

Suicide bomber kills 13 in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan - A suicide car bomber detonated his explosives at a busy checkpoint in central Afghanistan, killing at least 13 people Thursday, an official said. The Taliban quickly claimed responsibility for the attack.

The attack on the entry checkpoint into Panjshir province killed five police officers and one intelligence officer assigned to the post, provincial police chief Aziz Ghyrat said.

Seven civilian construction workers also were killed in the blast, which Ghyrat said happened in the late afternoon as cars were lined up to be searched before entering the province on a narrow mountain road.

Several civilians in other vehicles were wounded in the blast, he said.

Many of the civilian victims were in a bus waiting at the checkpoint, which marks the entrance into Panjshir from Parwan province, said Najim Khan, provincial deputy police chief of police.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in a text message to journalists that one of its fighters had exploded a car bomb in Panjshir.

Explosions, gunfire fatal to 11 in India

CHENNAI, India - Twin blasts ripped through two coaches of a train Thursday morning just minutes after it pulled into one of India’s busiest railway stations, killing a 22-year-old woman and injuring 14 other people, officials said.

And in other violence, a senior police official today said at least 10 people were killed late Thursday and four others wounded as militants armed with automatic weapons opened fire in India’s remote northeast.

Police said they were questioning one suspect in the explosions at the Chennai railway station in the country’s southeast, but there were no further details.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility in a region of India considered relatively peaceful.

Authorities said they suspect the blasts were caused by bombs planted on the Bangalore-Guwahati Express train, said M. Bhupati, the spokesman for India’s southern railway system.

In the northeast, L.R. Bishnoi, the inspector general of Kokrajhar district in Assam state, said the killings took place in two attacks.

He said rebels from a faction of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland were behind the attacks and that those killed belonged to the minority Muslim community.

Yemen reports 25 al-Qaida fighters slain

SANA, Yemen - Soldiers backed by fighter jets and tanks pushed farther Thursday into southern Yemen as part of an ongoing offensive targeting its al-Qaida branch, military officials said, an operation that has killed 25 suspected militants and 12 security force members.

The offensive began Tuesday along three fronts in the remote Mafhed mountains of Abyan and Shabwa provinces, officials said. They said a man from Uzbekistan named Abu Mussalam al-Uzbeki and a purported al-Qaida leader in the region were among those killed.

The military’s claims could not be immediately verified.

Yemen’s government previously has claimed to have killed leading militants who later turned out to be alive.

A military statement said al-Qaida militants surprised military forces by attacking a town called al-Majaala behind the front lines, though soldiers later took back the town.

It added that the forces dismantled land mines and captured vehicles used by al-Qaida militants, as well as arrested a number of suspected fighters.

Front Section, Pages 12 on 05/02/2014