China reports deadly raid on Islamic separatists ahead of Olympic games

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Chinese police shot dead five members of a radical Islamic separatist group intent on waging "holy war," state media reported Wednesday, as top officials called for an all-out security push ahead of next month's Beijing Olympics. No hard evidence was offered to back up the claim, although a leading terrorism expert said such incidents underscore the significant threat Beijing faces from an al-Qaida-linked radical group fighting for independence in the predominantly Muslim far western Xinjiang region. With the Olympics just weeks away, Chinese officials are ordering increasingly draconian security measures, with a dual ring of hundreds of checkpoints due to go up around the city starting next week. State media accounts of Tuesday's raid in Xinjiang's capital, Urumqi, said two other members of the group were hospitalized with injuries and eight others detained.