Recent attacks rise question of al Qaida connections

Tashkent (AsiaNews) –  At least 19  people were killed and 26 wounded on Sunday and Monday when two suicide attacks in Tashkent and the ancient city of Bukhara began the bloodiest series of organized violence in the former Soviet republic in the last five years. On Tuesday, 23 people died as Uzbek forces battled for hours with suspected terrorists, while numerous reports of other bombings and shootings continued to circulate in the area. Wednesday, a lone man detonated himself in a residential area after releasing two hostages.

The central Asian nation lies in a region of Islamic militancy and is considered an ally to the US-led war on terrorism. Hundreds of US troops have been stationed at an Uzbek air base in the southern town of Khanabad as it became a key staging point for US operations in Afghanistan in 2001.

 The Uzbek authorities have linked the explosions with international Islamic terrorist groups.  In an official statement today, Interior Ministry deputy anti-terrorism chief, Ilya Pyagay, stated "These are Wahhabis who belong to one of the branches of the international al Qaida terror group." He added, "These are bandits who planned these attacks long in advance." It was the first time the Uzbek government directly named al Qaida in connection with the violence of the previous four days.

Specifically, officials have suggested that one national group, Hizb ut-Tahrir may share responsibility for the recents acts.   Literature from Hizb ut-Tahrir and the Wahhabi sect, a strict  Islamic faction dominant in Saudi Arabia, was found at a terrorist bomb-making factory in the central region of Bukhara. Hizb at-Tahrir has never been linked to any terrorist attacks previously, and denied responsibility for the attacks. Still, Uzbek authorities claim Hizb ut-Tahrir is a breeding ground for terrorists and have sought unsuccessfully to have the U.S.  label it as a terrorist group. Another group under suspicion is the home-grown Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU).

Meanwhile, U .S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has offered U.S. help to investigate the attacks and discuss what help could be needed to bring peace to the area.  U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the U.S. has no information on who was responsible for the attacks but noted that IMU has been a dominant threat in the country.  The group was believed to have been dispersed during the U.S.-led operations in Afghanistan, but may have infiltrated nearby countries..

The number of suspects arrested in relation to the events now numbers more than 30. According to BBC's Monica Whitlock in Tashkent, large-scale arrests are the government's usual response to any unrest and now, with the temporary sealing of the country's  borders by  President Islam Karimov in effort to control the violence,  she believes this measure may have the opposite effect.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said that while the country may have co-operated in the war on terrorism, Uzbekistan must apply more effort to introduce democratic reforms: "More democracy is the best antidote to terror," he said.

• uzbekistan
• terrorism
• islamic
• fundamentalism