China in Daesh cross-hairs: Video

BEIJING: Daesh militants from China’s Uighur ethnic minority have vowed to return home and “shed blood like rivers,” according to a terrorist-tracking firm, in what experts said marked the first Daesh threat against Chinese targets.

The threat came in a half-hour video released Monday by a division of Daesh in western Iraq and featuring militants from China’s Uighur ethnic group, said the US-based SITE Intelligence Group, which analyzed the footage.

China has for years blamed exiled Uighur “separatists” for a series of violent attacks in its western Xinjiang region — the Uighur homeland — and warned of the potential for militants to link up with global terror groups.

In the video, a Uighur fighter issued the threat against China just before executing an alleged informant.

“Oh, you Chinese who do not understand what people say! We are the soldiers of the Caliphate, and we will come to you to clar- ify to you with the tongues of our weapons, to shed blood like rivers and avenging the oppressed,” according to SITE’s translation.

Many Uighurs complain of cultural and religious repression and discrimination by China.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said he had not seen the video but noted that “East Turkestan terrorist forces have been posing a severe threat to China’s security,” referring to Xinjiang militants.

He called for international cooperation “to combat such terrorist forces.”

The video was released on the same day China staged the latest in a series of mass rallies by armed police in Xinjiang meant to indicate Chinese resolve in crushing security threats.

Chinese authorities also have strengthened controls and anti-terrorist rhetoric.

In one violence-wracked corner of Xinjiang, authorities are offering rewards of up to 5 million yuan ($730,000) to those who expose terror plots or “kill, wound, or subdue” any attackers.

The Daesh video showed fighters, including heavily armed children, giving speeches, praying, and killing other “informants.”

It also featured images of Chinese riot police guarding mosques, patrolling Uighur markets, and arresting men in what appears to be western China. The Chinese flag is pictured engulfed in flames.

Authorities have banned or strictly controlled the observance of certain Muslim practices, such as growing beards, wearing headscarves, and fasting during Ramadan, calling them symbols of “Islamic extremism.”

“When we see the government involved in a very heavy crackdown, it has not really ever solved the problem, it has not made it go away,” said Raffaello Pantucci, director of International Security Studies at the UK-based Royal United Services Institute.

“In some cases it has made it worse.”