One positive benefit of 911 - that I would gladly do without - is a good knowledge of where all these central Asia countries are up on the "roof of the world."
Military News - CENTRAL ASIA: The Pakistani-Al Qaeda Connection
April 3, 2004: The Russian FSB (federal security agency) has sent investigators and technicians to assist in the counter-terrorism operations in Uzbekistan. There, the death toll in the last six days stands at 33 terrorists (seven of them women), ten policemen and four civilians. Police arrested 19 terrorism suspects and seized 55 suicide bomber belts, 72 ammonium nitrate bombs, and more than two tons of chemicals for making bombs. Also seized were seven AK-47s, 11 pistols and two hand grenades. The government says that most of the terrorists are foreigners, but Uzbek pro-democracy groups say the government is using the terrorist attacks as an excuse to round up anyone opposed to the current dictatorship.
Afghanistan, alarmed at the outbreak of terrorist violence, has closed its border crossings into Uzbekistan. Meanwhile, across the border in Pakistan, Tahir Yuldash (head of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan) is still on the loose with several hundred heavily armed followers. The chances of Yuldash getting back to Uzbekistan with his men are slim, but not impossible. In any event, the government claims that some of the terrorists participating in the recent attacks had spent time in Pakistani al Qaeda camps.
March 31, 2004: Uzbekistan's crackdown against suspected Islamic militants is being described as a new flank in the "war on terror". The death toll from incidents in Tashkent and Bukhara has risen to 42 since the night of March 28, with at least 22 killed in a third day of violence. State-run TV that 20 terrorists and three police were killed in the confrontations beginning around 7:20 AM. Police stopped a small car and two terrorists jumped out, detonating explosive-laden belts that killed themselves and three police, while wounding five more officers.
Nearby, a woman blew herself up after refusing to heed police orders to stop approaching a bus. Three women who had been in a car with that bomber fled to a nearby apartment building near the official residence of President Islam Karimov in the capital, Tashkent. During the five-hour standoff with the police, 11 suspected male and five female terrorists were killed.
A witness told the Associated Press that five suspects escaped and that the women from the car wearing veils revealing only their eyes (rare in secular Uzbekistan) were speaking a different Central Asian language. This merely adds to the mystery of which group is behind the recent violence. |
