This Reuters report has the usual skepticism that always accompanies mainstream media reporting about the jihad in China: China is “blaming Islamists and separatists for the worsening violence,” as if because China is a repressive regime, it couldn’t possibly be experiencing jihad terror attacks.
“Chinese state media says five suicide bombers carried out Xinjiang attack,” by Michael Martina, Reuters, May 23, 2014 (thanks to Kenneth):
(Reuters) – Five suicide bombers carried out the attack which killed 31 people in the capital of China’s troubled Xinjiang region, state media reported a day after the deadliest terrorist attack to date in the region.
The incident, which occurred in Urumqi on Thursday morning, was the second suicide attack in the capital in just over three weeks. A bomb and knife attack at an Urumqi train station in late April killed one bystander and wounded 79.
The government recently launched a campaign to strike hard against terrorism in Xinjiang, blaming Islamists and separatists for the worsening violence in the resource-rich western region bordering central Asia. At least 180 people have been killed in attacks across China over the past year.
The attackers ploughed two vehicles into an open market in Urumqi and hurled explosives. Many of the 94 people wounded were elderly shoppers, according to witnesses.
“Five suspects who participated in the violent terrorist attack blew themselves up,” the Global Times, a tabloid run by the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, reported on Friday.
The newspaper said authorities “are investigating whether there were other accomplices”.
“Judging from the many terrorist attacks that have taken place and the relevant perpetrators, they have received support from terrorist groups outside China’s borders as well as religious extremist propaganda spread via the internet,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a daily news briefing.
No group has claimed responsibility for Thursday’s attack.
Pan Zhiping, a retired expert on Central Asia at Xinjiang’s Academy of Social Science, said Thursday’s attack was the deadliest ever in the region.
He said the “terrorists” received training overseas from groups like the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) and gained combat experience in Syria.
“They are now definitely organized and these small organizations are very tight,” Pan said. “If it’s not possible to crack a small organization, then I think this kind of thing will continue to happen.”…
The ETIM has been accused by the United States and China of having ties to al Qaeda, but there is disagreement among security experts over the nature of the group and whether ties with al Qaeda and other militant organizations really exist….
Maybe they just share the same ideology and belief system.