China kills 11 ‘€˜terrorists’ in Xinjiang

Eleven "terrorists" were killed when they attacked police in China's far western region of Xinjiang on Friday, state news agency Xinhua reported. It was the latest violence to hit a part of the country with a large population of Muslim ethnic Uyghurs, who often allege they are being repressed by the country's ethnic Han majority.

"The terrorists, riding motorbikes and cars, attacked a team of police who were gathering before the gate of a park for routine patrol at around 4 p.m. in Wushi County in the Aksu Prefecture," Xinhua said in an English-language report.

Ethnic tensions have been high in Aksu. Human rights activists told Al Jazeera in mid-September that authorities had placed a Chinese flag at the head of a mosque there, provoking a public outcry because it essentially forced Muslims to bow to a symbol of the Chinese state when they prayed.

Chinese authorities told Xinhua that it appeared the "terrorists" who died Friday had been planning to carry out suicide bomb attacks.

"Police said the terrorists had (an) unknown number of (liquefied natural gas) cylinders in their car, which they had attempted to use as suicide bombs. Several terrorists were shot dead at the scene," the Xinhua report said.

Eight were killed by police, and three died "by their own suicide bomb," Xinhua said.

Xinjiang, bordering several Central Asian nations, has for years been beset by violence, blamed by the government on armed groups and separatists who want to establish an independent Islamic state called East Turkestan. Analysts who study the region have questioned the existence of the armed groups, suggesting that China uses claims of terrorism to justify crackdowns on Uyghur unrest over socioeconomic inequalities as well as alleged cultural and religious repression.

In October a vehicle plowed into tourists on the edge of Beijing's Tiananmen Square, killing the three people in the car and two bystanders and unnerving the ruling Communist Party. Beijing attributed the crash to the Turkestan Islamic Party, what it calls a terrorist organization.

But Uyghur and Chinese human-rights activists have called for greater transparency in the events surrounding the crash, with many saying that it was an isolated act of rage by a single disgruntled man.

More than 100 people, including several policemen, have been killed in violence in Xinjiang since last April, according to state media reports.

Al Jazeera and The Associated Press