A top anti-terrorism official said yesterday that suicide bombings against the US and Israeli embassies and the Uzbek chief prosecutor's office were the work of the same extremist group behind similar attacks earlier in the year that rattled this former Soviet republic.
Oleg Bichenov, Tashkent police anti-terrorism chief, told reporters that Friday's attacks that killed two and wounded nine others were retaliation for the ongoing trial of 15 suspects -- allegedly tied to al-Qaeda -- who are charged in the attacks four months ago that left at least 47 dead.
PHOTO: REUTERS
"It is connected to the trial and has been carried out by remnants of the same group," Bichenov said. "These are links in one chain."
Bichenov said police were taking "all necessary measures" to ensure security in the capital. He said no arrests had been made so far.
A trio of suicide bombers struck nearly simultaneously Friday evening in the Uzbek capital, killing two Uzbek guards outside the Israeli Embassy, including the ambassador's personal bodyguard. Seven people were injured at the general prosecutor's office, which suffered the heaviest damage, and two police were wounded outside the US Embassy.
President Islam Karimov returned home yesterday, cutting short a vacation to head a special government commission on the bombings.
The attacks in this Central Asian nation, a key US ally in the war on terror in neighboring Afghanistan, were the second to hit the country this year. In late March and early April, violence blamed on Islamic extremists -- including the region's first-ever suicide bombings -- left 33 militants, 10 police and four bystanders dead, according to Uzbek officials.
The first trial for those attacks began Monday in Uzbekistan's Supreme Court.
The defendants have all pleaded guilty and said the US and Israeli embassies were among the targets their extremist group, known as Jamoat, which means "society" in Uzbek, planned to attack. They have said the group ran training camps in Pakistan where they were taught by Arabs who the government says were al-Qaeda instructors.
Rabbi Abe David Gurevitch, the Tashkent-based chief rabbi for Central Asia, told reporters he felt no increased threat since the latest attacks.
"This is all politics," he said yesterday before Sabbath services, adding that he normally travels without any guards. "I'm not afraid. ... God protects me."
Just nine worshippers gathered for prayers at the synagogue, where there were no special security measures beyond a lone unarmed guard with a metal detector.
Other Jews at the services said they weren't taking any special precautions because of the bombings. "In Uzbekistan, people prefer Jews to (radical) Muslims," said Menachem Mandelblatt, referring to the generally friendly view of Jews in his majority Muslim country.
There are about 40,000 Jews in Uzbekistan, Gurevitch said.
The commander of the US base in the southern city of Khanabad, where hundreds of American troops are based, told AP he was monitoring the situation but there were no known threats against the facility. Security is always very high at the base, where US troops keep a low-profile and aren't allowed to go outside.
"We're aware of the incidents that occurred in Tashkent and are taking appropriate steps," US Army Leiutenant Colonel Neal Kemp said yesterday.
Opposition groups have said the earlier attacks, which targeted police, were motivated by anger at Karimov's repressive regime.
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