Flamethrower used to flush out knife-wielding militants in China’s Xinjiang region, says state media
Chinese paramilitary forces used a flamethrower against suspects hiding in a cave during a counterterrorism operation in the Xinjiang region, the military’s official newspaper reported on Monday.
Nectar Gan
PUBLISHED : Monday, 23 November, 2015, 12:08pm
UPDATED : Monday, 23 November, 2015, 4:56pm
Chinese paramilitary forces used a flamethrower against suspects hiding in a cave during a counterterrorism operation in the Xinjiang region, the military’s official newspaper reported on Monday.
The report did not give details about the background to the mission, but official media said last week that the authorities had staged a huge manhunt after militants killed 16 people in an attack on a mine in Xinjiang in September.
At the end of a 10-hour search the troops found the suspects hiding in a cave in a cliff, the PLA Daily reported.
Armed police threw waves of tear gas and stun grenades, but failed to drive the suspects out, the report said.
As the evening approached, an officer ordered the use of flamethrowers, which drove out more than 10 knife-wielding suspects, the article said.
They were all shot dead, according to the report.
The article said dozens of terrorists had fled to the to hide after “brutally hacking and killing members of the public”, without detailing when and where the attack took place.
The government did not confirm the killings in September until a week after a series of terrorist attacks in Paris.
The Tianshan Net news website affiliated with the Communist Party in Xinjiang reported last Friday that a group “directed by an overseas extremist group” attacked a coalmine in Aksu at about 5 am on September 18, killing 11 civilians and five policemen and injuring 18 others.
The report said 28 “terrorists” were killed and one had surrendered at the end of a 56-day manhunt after the mine attack.
Radio Free Asia, which first reported the attack on the coal mine, said at least 50 people were killed.”
On November 14, a day after the Paris attacks, the official weibo account of the Public Security Ministry published a statement, saying that “after a 56-day manhunt”, Xinjiang police had achieved major success in fighting terrorists.
The statement did not provide further details and the social media post was deleted a few hours later.
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