China’s Public Security Minister Guo Shengkun, center, and Xinjiang Party Secretary Zhang Chunxian, second right, hold umbrellas as they visit the site of an explosion in Urumqi, northwestern China’s Xinjiang region, Thursday, May 22, 2014. Assailants in two SUVs plowed through shoppers while setting off explosives on a busy street market in China’s volatile region of Xinjiang on Thursday, the local officials said, killing over two dozen people and injuring more than 90. The attack was the bloodiest in a series of violent incidents that Chinese authorities have blamed on radical separatists from the country’s Muslim Uighur minority. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
CHINA XINJIANG
Map locates Xinjiang region.; 1c x 2 inches; 46.5 mm x 50 mm;
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is condemning a bombing attack in Urumqi (uh-ROOM’-chee), China, calling it a, quote, “despicable and outrageous” act of violence against innocent civilians.
President Barack Obama’s press secretary, Jay Carney, issued a statement Friday expressing condolences and sympathies to the victims and their families.
He said the United States, quote, “resolutely opposes all forms of terrorism.”
Local Chinese officials said attackers hurled bombs from two SUVs that plowed through shoppers at a busy street market in Urumqi, located in China’s volatile northwestern region of Xinjiang (shihn-jahng). Officials said 31 people were killed and more than 90 were wounded.
No one had claimed responsibility for the attack. Chinese officials have blamed other recent violence in the region on radical separatists from the country’s Muslim Uighur (WEE’-gur) minority.
