Van bomb at Chinese embassy in Kyrgyzstan
Suicide bomber dies, three security guards wounded
BISHKEK, KYRGYZSTAN // A van driven by a suicide bomber exploded after ramming through a gate at the Chinese embassy in Kyrgyzstan yesterday, injuring three people.
“As a result of the explosion, only the suicide bomber terrorist died. Security guards were injured,” said the country’s deputy prime minister Jenish Razakov. Mr Razakov said the three wounded were Kyrgyz employees of the embassy.
Medics said their injuries were not serious.
Impoverished majority-Muslim Kyrgyzstan, which borders western China, has a history of political instability and battling extremism.
Authorities said the country faced the threat of attacks from ISIL after about 500 Kyrgyz left to fight for it in Iraq and Syria.
Chinese officials had previously been targeted in attacks linked to radicals from China’s Uighur minority, many of whom live across the border in the restive Xinjiang province.
Security sources said that a Mitsubishi Delica van smashed through a gate at the embassy yesterday morning before exploding in the centre of the compound close to the ambassador’s residence.
A police source confirmed that the vehicle was driven by a suicide bomber and described the incident as a “terrorist attack”.
China’s foreign ministry con- demned the attack as an “extreme and violent act” but refused to classify it as terrorism.
“We asked the Kyrgyz side to get to the bottom of this incident and hold whoever is behind this accountable,” said spokeswoman Hua Chunying.
Kyrgyz officials have not pointed the finger of blame at any specific group but president Almazbek Atambayev ordered a thorough investigation.
Police sources put the strength of the blast at an equivalent of up to 10 kilograms of TNT.
Residents said the blast had blown in their windows and caused their houses to shake. Damage could be seen on the embassy buildings and police cordoned off the area.
Security officials also blocked traffic on one of the city’s main roads to check vehicles.
The Chinese and nearby American embassies on the edge of the city were evacuated, said the Kyrgyz emergency services.
An economically troubled ally of Russia, Kyrgyzstan has had two governments overthrown and endured ethnic violence that claimed hundreds of lives since its independence in 1991.
The authorities regularly announce that they have foiled attacks planned by ISIL in the country.
Security forces last year said they had engaged in deadly shootouts with suspected terrorists in the capital Bishkek. One of the three suicide bombers who carried out a deadly attack blamed on ISIL at the international airport in the Turkish city Istanbul in June was reported to be from Kyrgyzstan.
In 2014, Kyrgyz authorities said they killed 11 people, including Uighur rebels, trying to cross into the country.
Chinese officials in Kyrgyzstan have been targeted, with one shot dead in 2000 in an attack blamed on radicals from the Uighur minority.
Violence has plagued China’s north-west region of Xinjiang in recent years.
Beijing has blamed the violence on separatist terrorists with overseas connections, while rights groups pointed to what they said was discrimination against the Uighurs.
Kyrgyzstan is gearing up to mark 25 years since independence from the former Soviet Union with celebrations beginning in Bishkek today.