The target of the attack was not known, although an
overseas activist for the region's native Uighur ethnic group said the victims
included members of the security forces.
The blast went off after a man drove a three-wheeled
vehicle laden with explosives into a crowd of people in a suburb in Aksu city
in southwestern Xinjiang, said Hou Hanmin, a spokeswoman for the Xinjiang
government.
“Police say it was an intentional act because the suspect
was carrying explosive devices,” Hou told a hastily arranged news conference in
the regional capital of Urumqi, about 650 km from Aksu.
She said the suspect, who was injured, was captured
immediately.
Some of the wounded were in serious condition. “The
casualties are innocent civilians of different ethnic minority backgrounds,”
she said.
Xinjiang has been the site of ethnic conflict in recent
years, including riots last summer when longstanding tensions between the
Turkic Muslim Uighurs and China's majority Han flared into open violence in
Urumqi. The government said 197 people were killed, while hundreds of people
were arrested and about two dozen sentenced to death. Many other Uighurs remain
unaccounted for and are believed to be in custody.
While the riots marked China's worst ethnic violence in
decades, Xinjiang has seen a series of bombings and other violence, including
attacks on security forces around the time of the Beijing Olympics in 2008. The
government also says it has broken up several groups intent on carrying out
attacks, including a bomb-making operation near Aksu in 2009 and a gang last
month that it said was linked to the East Turkistan Islamic Movement, a banned
organization advocating independence for Xinjiang.
Anti-government sentiments among Uighurs are fed by the
ruling Communist Party's heavy-handed controls over their language, culture and
Islamic faith, along with resentment of Chinese migrants and a perception that
they are being favored economically to the detriment of Xinjiang's native
population.
The government claims attacks are often planned by exile
Uighurs overseas, including across the border in Central Asia or Pakistan.
