A fierce gun battle Tuesday between Uzbek special forces and suspected Islamic militants in the capital city of Uzbekistan – a key US ally in Central Asia – is the latest violence in the country’s bloodiest three days since terrorist attacks there in 1999. The special forces killed at least 16 militants and lost three of their own when raiding a building where the suspected militants were hiding out, reports Reuters. “Eleven male terrorists were eliminated. Five female terrorists were killed as well. There were three police dead,” an Interior Ministry official told Reuters at the scene. This violence follows a series of blasts and shootouts since Sunday. On Monday, bomb blasts and attacks killed 19 and wounded 26. Two of the blasts in a crowded Tashkent marketplace were carried out by women suicide bombers operating for the first time in Central Asia, according to the BBC. Earlier Tuesday two alleged terrorists jumped out of a car police had stopped, and detonated explosive-laden belts, killing themselves and three police officers and injuring five more policemen, reports The International Herald Tribune.Full Story
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