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12 killed in Xinjiang ethnic strife

29 February 2012 04:28 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Twelve people have been killed in clashes between ethnic Uyghurs and Han Chinese in the Kashgar prefecture of Chinaâ€™s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, APA reports quoting Press TV.

Chinese state media said "violent mobs" armed with knives launched attacks in Yecheng county on Tuesday, killing 10 people. Police then shot and killed two of the assailants.

It was not immediately clear what triggered the violence.

The police are tracking down the culprits.

Security has been high in the northwestern region of Xinjiang since riots in July 2009, when Uyghurs and members of the country’s dominant Han group clashed in the regional capital Urumqi.

Chinese officials say nearly 200 people were killed and 1,700 injured in the unrest of 2009, which was China’s worst ethnic strife in decades.

Almost half of Xinjiang’s residents are Muslim Uyghurs, who complain that large-scale migration of Han Chinese workers from the east has cost them jobs and is eroding their culture.