An explosion yesterday and a shootout between Uzbek police and alleged terrorists outside the capital Tashkent left several people injured, a news agency and a Western diplomat said, citing law enforcement sources.
The incidents followed a two-day spasm of violence, including two suicide bombings, two assaults on police and an explosion at a bomb-making hideaway which killed 19 people and wounded 26. Uzbek President Islam Karimov blamed the violence on Islamic extremists and said several arrests had been made already.
A police source told a Western diplomat in Tashkent that a man in a car blew himself up yesterday after being chased by police, and that a shootout had erupted at an apartment that authorities raided to capture three alleged suspects.
Several people were injured in the violence, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported, citing police sources.
The Foreign Ministry and president's office declined to confirm the reports.
The president said that backing for the earlier attacks, on Sunday and Monday, might have come from a banned radical group that has never before been linked to terrorist acts -- Hizb ut-Tahrir, or the Party of Liberation. The group denied responsibility.
Security forces beefed up patrols. Yesterday morning, the road heading out of Tashkent to Karimov's official residence to the north was blocked by soldiers and police. Armored personnel carriers were deployed along the road and empty trucks had been placed in intersections to prevent traffic from entering.
The violence began Sunday night with a blast that killed 10 people at a house used by alleged terrorists in the central region of Bukhara, Prosecutor-General Rashid Kadyrov said Monday.
Police found 50 bottles together with homemade ingredients for bombs and instructions on how to make them, a Kalashnikov rifle, two pistols, rounds of ammunition and extremist Islamic literature, he said.
South Korea’s air force yesterday apologized for a 2021 midair collision involving two fighter jets, a day after auditors said the pilots were taking selfies and filming during the flight and held them responsible for the accident. “We sincerely apologize to the public for the concern caused by the accident that occurred in 2021,” an air force spokesman told a news conference, adding that one of the pilots involved had been suspended from flying duties, received severe disciplinary action and has since left the military. The apology followed a report released on Wednesday by the South Korean Board of Audit and Inspection,
Indonesian police have arrested 13 people after shocking images of alleged abuse against small children at a daycare center went viral, sparking outrage across the nation, officials said on Monday. Police on Friday last week raided Little Aresha, a daycare center in Yogyakarta on Java island, following a report from a former employee. CCTV footage circulating on social media showed children, most younger than two, lying on the floor wearing only diapers, their hands and feet bound with rags. The police have confirmed that the footage is authentic. Police said they also found 20 children crammed into a room just 3m by 3m. “So
About 240 Indians claiming descent from a Biblical tribe landed at Tel Aviv airport on Thursday as part of a government operation to relocate them to Israel. The newcomers passed under a balloon arch in blue and white, the colors of the Israeli flag, as dozens of well-wishers welcomed them with a traditional Jewish song. They were the first “bnei Menashe” (“sons of Manasseh”) to arrive in Israel since the government in November last year announced funding for the immigration of about 6,000 members of the community from the states of Manipur and Mizoram in northeast India. The community claims to descend from
‘TROUBLING’: The firing of Phelan, who was an adviser to a nonprofit that supported the defense of Taiwan, was another example of ‘dysfunction’ under Trump, a US senator said US Secretary of the Navy John Phelan has been fired, a US official and a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, in another wartime shakeup at the Pentagon coming just weeks after US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ousted the Army’s top general. The Pentagon announced his departure in a brief statement, saying he was leaving the administration “effective immediately,” but it did not provide a reason or say whether it was his decision to go. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Phelan was dismissed in part because he was moving too slowly to implement reforms to