Saturday, November 29, 2014

Another terror attack in China kills 15 people. Yahoo/Reuters.

15 are dead in China's Xinjiang province after a group of people threw bombs in a crowded street marketplace. Yahoo/Reuters. 11 of the dead were the attackers, who were killed by the police. The attackers also stabbed people with knives and used axes as well. The Xinjiang province has a history of terror attacks from the  Uighur Muslim separatists, who are treated as second class citizens in China. Hundreds have died in recent attacks, including one in October that killed 38 people, but media coverage has been sparse due to heavy censorship and restriction by the Chinese government. China has also passed more laws restricting what people can wear and banning any logos and clothing associated with extremism.

My Comment:
The conflict between the Chinese government and the Uighur Muslims is one of the most under-reported and mysterious conflicts in the world today. To be perfectly frank, nobody really knows all that much about what is going on in the region. China is restricting travel to and press coverage of the region so it is hard to determine details. Of course this plays into the hands of Al-Qaeda and ISIS, who have both tried to make inroads into China. Al-Qaeda even went so far as to declare war on China. Either way though the treatment of the Uighur Muslims is something that comes up from time to time in both ISIS and Al-Qaeda propaganda.

As for the attacks themselves, they are crude but effective. China has no real civilian ownership of guns so a shooting spree is out. But time and again these Uighur Muslims have shown that all it takes to kill a lot of people is a crowd of dedicated people with knives and axes. (and yes I will use that as an argument against gun control in the United States) Their side is taking tremendous causalities, both from the police response and the inevitable death penalties for anyone who is captured, but if their main goal is to spread terror and chaos, it seems to be succeeding. The fact that they were using explosives in this particular attack seems to indicate that they might be getting a bit more complicated. Granted, it doesn't take a whole lot of knowledge to make explosives, or find the components for that matter, but it does take more skill then just grabbing an ax and chopping people. Perhaps they are getting help from Al-Qaeda or ISIS?

Of course all of this is speculation because the only source we have for these incidents is the Chinese government..,

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