A pair of supected Islamic terrorists attacked a border post in western China and killed 16 paramilitary police officers, hacking some of them with knives, reports CNN, quoting the Xinhua news agency. The two crashed a truck into a group of officers jogging near the station and then lobbed two grenades into a barracks. At least 16 were wounded in the attack near Kashi in the Muslim region of Xinjiang. Both attackers were arrested.
The East Turkistan Islamic Movement was believed responsible for the attack, according to Chinese authorities, who said they had intelligence that the Uighur Muslim separatist group planned to launch assaults leading up to the start of the Olympics on Friday. The attack, the bloodiest against Chinese security forces in recent memory, heightened security precautions in the nation already on extreme alert in the run-up to the Olympics.
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