Suspected terror attack kills 16 in China

Source (http://www-chaos.umd.edu/history/chinamap.gif Date of Access 4 August 2008)

More evidence revealing that it's really not that simple to impose the "Han-ness" of modern China onto her constituent 55 ethnic groups. One only needs to look at the map of modern China to realise the peripheries of her borders and her autonomous regions are as vast and dynamic as a volcanic ridge.

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Suspected terror attack kills 16 in China
Source: The Age (http://www.theage.com.au/world/suspected-terror-attack-kills-16-in-china-20080804-3prr.html Date of Acccess 4 August 2008)

"Sixteen policemen in China's Muslim-majority north-west were killed today in a suspected terrorist attack, raising security fears four days before the Beijing Olympics.

In one of the deadliest reported attacks in China in years, two men drove a truck up to the police station in Kashgar city aiming for a group of officers carrying out morning fitness exercises, Xinhua news agency said.

The two got off the vehicle and threw two grenades at the station, moving in to hack at police officers with knives, it said.

Fourteen officers died on the spot, and two others lost their lives on the way to hospital, it said.

Both attackers were arrested, one of them with a leg injury sustained during the raid, according to Xinhua.

"The raid ... was suspected as a terrorist attack,'' the agency said, citing local police.

The incident threw a shadow over the Olympic countdown, after repeated warnings in recent months from the Chinese government that militants from the restive Xinjiang region were planning to stage attacks to wreck the Games..."

More here.