There were reports of heavy fighting and clashes yesterday, but its clear the scale of the violence has been enormous and only the remoteness of the area kept the story form being completely told.
URUMQI, China (Reuters) - At least 140 people have been killed in rioting in the capital of China's northwestern region of Xinjiang, with the government blaming exiled Muslim separatists for the area's worst case of ethnic unrest in years.
Hundreds of rioters have been arrested, the official Xinhua news agency reported, after rock-throwing Uighurs took to the streets of the regional capital on Sunday, some burning and smashing vehicles and confronting ranks of anti-riot police.
The unrest underscores the volatile ethnic tensions that have accompanied China's growing economic and political stake in its western frontiers.
From the Times:
The rioting broke out Sunday afternoon in a large market area of Urumqi, the capital of the vast, restive desert region of Xinjiang, and lasted for several hours before riot police officers and paramilitary or military troops locked down the Uighur quarter of the city, according to witnesses and photographs of the riot.
At least 1,000 rioters took to the streets, throwing stones at the police and setting vehicles on fire. Plumes of smoke billowed into the sky, while police officers used fire hoses and batons to beat back rioters and detain Uighurs who appeared to be leading the protest, witnesses said.
The casualty numbers appeared to be murky and shifting on Monday. A one-line report by Xinhua, the state news agency, giving the estimate of 129 dead and 816 injured attributed the numbers to the regional police department, but did not quote officials by name and did not have any details. Earlier, Xinhua had reported that three civilians and one police officer had been killed.
One regional official reached by telephone put the death toll at 105 and said at least 800 people had been injured. One American who watched the rioting at its height said he did not see people being killed or corpses in the streets, though he said he did see Uighurs shoving or kicking a few Han Chinese. Images of the rioting on state television showed some bloody people lying in the streets and cars burning.
The region is clearly troubled and its no surprise that some Uighur ended up in Afghanistan.
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