August 4, 2008: Sixteen Police Killed in Xinjiang Attack; Uighur Militants Blamed but Official Account Disputed

The Kashgar attack: a policeman holding a machete. [Source: New York Times]Sixteen policemen are killed in an attack by separatist Uighur militants in Kashgar, a border town in China’s western province of Xinjiang. According to the official account, two men drive a dump truck into a group of border police on their morning jog, then attack them with grenades and machetes. The attackers may belong to the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), a separatist group classified as a terrorist organization by China and the United States. [New York Times, 8/5/2008] However, several Westeners who witness the attack and take photographs from a nearby hotel will dispute the official account. They will say that, immediately after a truck had plowed into a large group of paramilitary border police, several men wearing the same green uniform were seen attacking other officers on the ground with machetes. [New York Times, 9/25/2008]