At least 19 people werekilled in a series of explosions and shoot-outs in Uzbekistan in"terrorist" actions aimed at splitting the US-led anti-terrorcoalition, officials said today.
Prosecutor General Rashid Kadyrov said a further 26 peoplehad been wounded in the ancient city of Bukhara late yesterdayand the capital Tashkent this morning.
"This has been committed by the hands of internationalterror, including Hizb ut-Tahrir and Wahhabis," Foreign MinisterMr Sadyk Safayev told a news conference.
Hizb ut-Tahrir, which aims to set up a pan-Islamic statethat would include post-Soviet Central Asia, and the Wahhabi school of Sunni Islam are both outlawed in Uzbekistan.
"That's the hallmark of the terrorist acts we have alreadywitnessed abroad," Mr Safayev said. "Attempts are being made tosplit the international anti-terror coalition."
Mr Kadyrov said three policemen and one child died in twosuicide bomb attacks in Tashkent. Both female suicide bombersalso died.
He said that late yesterday about 10 people had died in ablast at an apartment block in Bukhara, some 600 km (375 miles)southwest of Tashkent, when a "terrorist" was preparing anexplosive device.
Mr Kadyrov also said that three policemen were killed inovernight shoot-outs with "suspected terrorists".
Uzbekistan is a close Washington ally in the US-led "waron terror" in neighbouring Afghanistan. It provided a keyairbase for US troops in operations there following theSeptember 11th, 2001, hijacked plane attacks on the United States.