Kyrgyzstan Says Uighur Militants Ordered the Recent Blast At the Chinese Embassy

The government of Kyrgyzstan said Tuesday that a suicide attack targeting the Chinese embassy last week was ordered by Uighur militants active in Syria.

Security officials said the attack in the capital Bishkek — which injured three embassy employees — was carried out by an ethnic Uighur member of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, according to Reuters.

“The investigation established that the terrorist act was ordered by Uighur terrorist groups active in Syria and affiliated to the terrorist organization the Nusra Front whose emissaries … financed the terrorist action,” Reuters cited the State Committee on National Security, or GKNB, as saying.

The suicide bomber, allegedly an ethnic Uighur who held a Tajik passport, rammed a vehicle through the gates of the Chinese embassy on Aug. 30. The vehicle then sped toward the center of the compound and exploded near the ambassador’s residence.

Only the driver died in the blast, while the three embassy staffers sustained minor injuries.

Kyrgyzstan shares a border with China’s Xinjiang province, where Beijing has fought with Uighur separatists for decades. The broader region, a dense and impoverished area that includes Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, has become a breeding ground for extremism in Central Asia in recent years.

[Reuters]