A man blew himself up in a residential area of Uzbekistan's capital on Wednesday, police said, bringing a third day of violence to a bloody close but scepticism mounted over official explanations.
A police officer said a man in the city's old district southwest of the center had blown himself up at 8pm, causing no other casualties, after the security services surrounded a one-storey clay building where he lived.
The incident was the latest in a series of blasts and shoot-outs to hit Tashkent and the ancient Silk Road city of Bukhara, killing at least 43 people since Sunday night.
A plain clothes security official at the scene of Wednesday's blast denied any hostages had been taken by the man, as reported earlier by Russian television.
The Russian news agency Itar-Tass said 30 people have been detained in the last 48 hours under anti-terrorism laws.
The police officer, who did not give his name, said police had acted on a tip-off from a detainee when they surrounded the house.
Earlier, on the streets of the Uzbek capital, few appeared surprised at the violence and some were openly sympathetic to those behind the attacks.
"The Uzbek people have had enough. I think this was aimed against the police, not ordinary people," said Guzal, 20, a student wearing sunglasses and strolling in high heels along an avenue in central Tashkent.
"I've heard people saying they support this [violence] every time I get on the bus," she said, refusing to give her family name.
"We don't know anything," said Kolya, a 53-year-old unemployed bricklayer. "People are angry. Whoever did these things lacked something, people have nothing to eat."
Police corruption, serious poverty and the lack of a legal political opposition have fostered resentment. Uzbekistan keeps its economy going mainly thanks to high cotton and gold prices.
"This is a kleptocratic government with an economic policy that is causing deepening poverty," Britain's Ambassador Craig Murray said. "Combined with strong repression and a lack of political freedom, it is radicalizing the population."
President Islam Karimov, whose motorcade travels along closed streets with a carload of troops aiming semi-automatic weapons at pedestrians, has defended his hardline stance against Muslim dissidents by pointing to the former Taliban government in neighboring Afghanistan.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell is soon to decide on whether to "certify" Uzbekistan on economic and human rights progress, without which financial aid will be blocked.
He offered assistance to Uzbekistan in a phone call to Uzbek Foreign Minister Sadyk Safaev, a State Department official said.
Human rights groups, which estimate that Uzbekistan has locked 7,000 Muslim dissidents in prisons where torture is allegedly practised, say they fear the blasts will serve as a pretext for further crackdowns against non-violent Muslims.
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