Muslim separatists in western China have carried out 260 attacks in the past decade, killing 160 people and injuring 440, state media reported Tuesday in a rare disclosure. The figures from Zhao Yongchen, a top anti-terrorism official, are among the few specifics ever given by China about its campaign to rid the western Xinjiang region of separatists fighting for an independent state of “East Turkistan.” Zhao, deputy director of the Public Security Ministry’s Anti-Terrorism Bureau, said attacks and killings came both inside and outside of China, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. One such group, the East Turkistan Liberation Organization, carried out a March 2003 attack on a bus in neighboring Kyrgyzstan in which 21 people were killed, Zhao was quoted as saying. He gave no other examples and it was not possible to independently verify the figures of the claim of attack. Full Story
About OODA Analyst
OODA is comprised of a unique team of international experts capable of providing advanced intelligence and analysis, strategy and planning support, risk and threat management, training, decision support, crisis response, and security services to global corporations and governments.