Earlier this summer, we talked about the Uighurs — the Muslim, Turkic people of China’s far west, 17 of whom have been (wrongly) held in Guantánamo. Now a story just in to the New York Times from Beijing reports:
Two men armed with knives and explosives ambushed a military police unit in China’s majority Muslim northwest Monday morning, killing 16 officers and wounding 16 others before being arrested, according to the state media. …
The assault took place at dawn in the oasis city of Kashgar, as a brigade of border patrol officers jogged outside their barracks near the city center.
Officials suggested the attackers were associated with a murky separatist movement seeking independence for China’s Uighur minority …
The story details the background that has several sources doubting that this attack qualifies as “terrorism,” including an Israeli East-Asia expert who says, "I am very skeptical of this kind of information that comes only from Chinese sources."
Anyhow, if you’ve developed an interest in this history, you’ll want to read this one.
