3 killed as violence flares in W. China

Separatists had threatened attacks

BEIJING - Three security officials were killed at a roadside checkpoint in western China's Xinjiang region yesterday when at least one assailant jumped off a passing vehicle and stabbed them to death, state media reported. It was third deadly attack in nine days, coinciding with the opening of the Olympic Games in Beijing.

A fourth official was wounded in the attack in Yamanya town, the New China News Agency said. The assailants were still at large.

The attack occurred about 9 a.m. as local government officials were checking the names of people passing through a checkpoint about 18 miles from Kashgar, the oasis town where 16 paramilitary border guards were killed in an attack on Aug. 4. In a separate attack, assailants detonated explosives and clashed with police in the Xinjiang town of Kucha on Sunday; 10 attackers, one security guard, and one bystander died, according to state media reports.

The spike in violence has claimed 31 lives in the restive desert region where China meets central Asia. It comes after a separatist group that calls itself the Turkestan Islamic Party released three videos threatening attacks during the Olympic Games, especially targeted at government and police facilities and key Olympic areas. Chinese government officials say they have no evidence the attacks are linked to separatist groups, but they have suggested the attacks are terrorism.

Xinjiang is home to a large population of Uighurs, a primarily Muslim ethnic group that speaks a Turkic language and has long chafed under Chinese authority. The Chinese government responded with overwhelming force after sporadic bombings in the region during the 1990s. The area has been tense, but mostly quiet for more than a decade.