Gunbattle rages in Uzbek capital after bombs
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-03-30 17:15

Several explosions and a gun battle rattled the northeast of the Uzbek capital Tashkent on Tuesday, the day after bomb blasts the government blamed on Islamic militants killed 19 people on the U.S. ally's territory.

At least 19 people were killed in a series of explosions and shoot-outs in Uzbekistan in 'terrorist' actions aimed at splitting the U.S.-led anti-terror coalition, officials said March 29, 2004. [Reuters Graphic]

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ilhom Zakirov said Uzbek Interior Ministry special forces were conducting a mopping-up operation in a mainly residential district with a large tractor factory.

"Special police forces are eliminating the remains of a terrorist group which had been detected in this area earlier," Zakirov added. He said the situation was fully under control.

General Prosecutor's spokeswoman Svetlana Artykova told Reuters that "terrorists" were being rounded up. "Naturally, they are putting up some resistance," she said.

Uzbek officials declined to say how many people they thought were involved in the fighting or discuss casualty numbers.

The former Soviet Central Asian state, which has drawn harsh criticism for its tough tactics against Islamic groups, provided an airbase for U.S. operations in neighboring Afghanistan following the September 11, 2001, attacks on U.S. cities.

Uzbek interior forces ramped up security in the city of three million after Monday's explosions in Tashkent -- two of them caused by female suicide bombers -- and the ancient city of Bukhara.

Uzbek officials blamed Islamist groups for the attacks, describing them as instruments of international terror.

One of those named, Hizb ut-Tahrir, denied involvement, saying it "does not engage in terrorism, violence or armed struggle."

Soldiers block a road leading out of the Uzbek capital Tashkent on Tuesday, March 30, 2004. Special police units were tracking alleged terrorist remnants on the outskirts of the city after two days of violence in Uzbekistan including the country's first-ever suicide bombings. [AP Photo]

In a statement issued in London it said "the finger of blame for these explosions must point at the tyrannical Uzbek regime which has orchestrated such events in the past in order to suppress legitimate Islamic political opposition."

A United Nations rapporteur has accused the government of President Islam Karimov, who has led the country since Soviet times, of "systematic" use of torture.

The region, also including Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, is regarded in Russia as the "soft underbelly" of the former Soviet Union. Moscow, fighting separatists in its mainly Muslim region of Chechnya, shares Tashkent's concern about any Islamist activity or infiltration into the area from Afghanistan.

EXPLOSIONS

A resident said Tuesday's fighting erupted with explosions.

"We heard blasts around 8:15 a.m. (0315 GMT), then bursts of submachine gun fire, then single shots. We were all terribly scared -- our house was shaking," said Lena, a 30-year-old housewife living close to the fighting.

"My mother said she had heard four explosions. I myself heard five. Then an armored personnel carrier went chugging down the street," she said.

"We're still hearing single shots and bursts of submachine gun fire. Sometimes we hear separate explosions but they sound kind of muffled right now."

Tashkent residents had been woken by truck horns and police whistles as military units and police were deployed overnight.

The city's main thoroughfares were blocked by checkpoints manned by servicemen in bulletproof vests and carrying Kalashnikovs.

Zakirov said the government had the situation in hand.

"There's no panic among the population. All industrial enterprises and state institutions are working as usual. The situation is under the control of the authorities," he said.

In Washington, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the United States stood firmly behind its Central Asian ally.

"These attacks only strengthen our resolve to defeat terrorists wherever they hide and strike, working in close cooperation with Uzbekistan and our other partners in the global war on terror," he said.

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