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Police kill six, arrest three over Xinjiang killings

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-08-30 11:09

URUMQI -- Police in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region have killed six people and arrested three others during their investigation into the killings of five police and security staff this month.

Related readings:  Chinese police make arrests in connection with Xinjiang killings  Two police killed in Xinjiang attack

Police encountered nine suspects in a corn field in Ying'erlike Township, Shule County, Kashi Prefecture, on Friday evening, said a spokesman with Kashi police department.

The knife-wielding suspects tried to resist the police and put up a "desperate struggle", injuring a militia man and an armed soldier, the spokesman said.

The police fought back and shot and killed six people. The other three were injured and arrested, he said.

Initial investigations showed the suspects were linked with two attacks on August 12 and 27, he added.

Four security staff were attacked at a road checkpoint in Yamanya Town, Shule County, on August 12. Only one of the four survived, but with injuries. The assailants fled after the attack.

Two police staff were killed and five others were injured in a knife attack on Wednesday as they were investigating August 12 attack in a corn field in Kizilboyi Town, in Kashi's Jiashi County.