“A war has been declared on all of us.” Yes, indeed. In this story the warriors are identified as “religious extremists.” Militant Methodists, no doubt.
“Suspected Islamist rebels kill 3 Kyrgyz policemen,” from Reuters, January 5 (thanks to Twostellas):
BISHKEK (Reuters) – Suspected Islamist militants shot dead three policemen in the Kyrgyz capital late on Tuesday, security officials said on Wednesday, underscoring the Central Asian nation’s instability after a year of chaos and violence.
Kyrgyzstan, a mainly Muslim nation where both Russia and the United States hold military air bases, saw its president deposed in a bloody revolt last April. In June, it was rocked by ethnic riots, in which at least 400 people were killed….
“Religious extremists” armed with Kalashnikov submachine guns shot dead the three policemen as they were checking passports of tenants of an apartment house in a densely populated residential area, a security spokesman said.
“These persons are leaders and active members of an extremist religious group, which was also behind a terrorist attack on Nov. 30 and attempted to explode a car at the city police department on Dec. 24,” Rysbek Bakyn uulu, spokesman for the GKNB security police, told Reuters.
“This is a clear threat from religious extremism,” Kyrgyz Interior Minister Zarylbek Rysaliyev said in an address to citizens posted on the ministry’s official site www.mvd.kg.
“A war has been declared on all of us,” he said. “We are ready to face the challenge and will act in a tough way.”
On Nov. 30, an explosion in Bishkek wounded at least two people outside a sports palace where a group of people are standing trial accused of mass killings during the April revolt.
A day earlier, four Islamist militants were killed during a raid in the southern city of Osh, the focal point for the ethnic bloodshed in June.
A load of explosives was found in a jeep parked near the Bishkek police building on Dec. 24….