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China ‘deeply shocked’ by attack at embassy in Kyrgyzstan

BISHKEK — A suspected suicide bomber driving a van rammed the gates of the Chinese embassy in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek yesterday, killing the attacker and wounding at least three other people, in an attack that prompted swift condemnation from China.

Interior Ministry officers and  security forces sealing the site of the bomb blast outside China’s embassy in Kyrgyzstan. Photo: REUTERS

Interior Ministry officers and security forces sealing the site of the bomb blast outside China’s embassy in Kyrgyzstan. Photo: REUTERS

BISHKEK — A suspected suicide bomber driving a van rammed the gates of the Chinese embassy in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek yesterday, killing the attacker and wounding at least three other people, in an attack that prompted swift condemnation from China.

The Kyrgyzstan government, in a statement, called the attack “a terrorist act” and an Interior Ministry spokesman said the van exploded inside the compound.

The blast shook houses nearby and shattered windows. Police cordoned off the building and the adjacent area, and the state security service said they were investigating the bombing that occurred around 10am local time.

China condemned the assault and urged the Kyrgyz authorities to quickly investigate and determine the reason behind the incident.

“China is deeply shocked by this and strongly condemns this violent and extreme act,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular news briefing in Beijing.

Three embassy staff suffered minor injuries and were taken to hospital, but no organisation had yet claimed responsibility, Ms Hua said.

China’s state news agency Xinhua said five people were wounded: Two security guards and three Kyrgyz nationals working at the embassy.

The security service of the former Soviet Central Asian nation — which borders China — said an “explosive device” had been placed inside the vehicle.

Kyrgyz law enforcement sources put the strength of the blast at the equivalent of up to 10kg of TNT and one said body parts thought to be from the attacker were found several hundred metres from the blast site.

Local residents said that the blast had shattered windows and shook their houses.

Pictures posted on social media, purporting to be from the embassy, showed a gate smashed open and debris inside the compound.

Law enforcement officials blocked traffic on one of the city’s main highways and were checking vehicles. Employees from the Chinese and nearby American embassy on the edge of the city were evacuated.

Impoverished majority-Muslim Kyrgyzstan, with a population of six million people, has a history of political instability and battling Islamist extremism.

The economically-troubled former Soviet republic has seen two governments overthrown and ethnic violence claim hundreds of lives since it gained independence in 1991.

The authorities regularly announce that they have foiled attacks planned by the Islamic State (IS) group in the country.

The authorities routinely detain suspected Islamist militants they accuse of being linked to Islamic State, which actively recruits from Central Asia. Some 500 Kyrgyz are thought to have joined the ranks of IS fighting in Syria and Iraq.

An anti-Chinese militant group made up of ethnic Uighurs — a Turkic-language speaking, mainly Muslim people, most of whom live in China’s Xinjiang region — is also believed by some to be active in Central Asia, although security experts have questioned that.

In 2014, Kyrgyz border guards killed 11 people believed to be members of that group who had illegally crossed the Chinese-Kyrgyz border.

Attacks on Chinese missions abroad are rare, although its embassy in Belgrade was hit in error during the Nato bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999.

An Islamist militant attack on a hotel in Mali last year killed three Chinese citizens, and this year a Chinese United Nations peacekeeper was killed in an attack, also in Mali.

In Pakistan, Chinese workers have occasionally been targeted by what police say are nationalists opposed to its plans to invest tens of billions of dollars in a new trade route to the Arabian Sea, part of its “One Belt, One Road” project to open new markets via Central Asia, South Asia and the Middle East.

Kyrgyzstan is gearing up to mark 25 years of independence from the Soviet Union with celebrations in Bishkek to be held today. Agencies

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