Foiled Terror Plots Target China Olympics
By Christopher Bodeen
Associated Press Writer
March 10, 2008
CBNNews.com - BEIJING - Chinese police killed alleged terrorists plotting to attack the Beijing Olympics, while a flight crew managed to prevent an apparent attempt to crash a Chinese jetliner in a separate case just last week, officials said Sunday.
Wang Lequan, the top Communist Party official in the western region of Xinjiang, said materials seized in a Jan. 27 raid in the regional capital, Urumqi, had described a plot with a purpose "specifically to sabotage the staging of the Beijing Olympics."
"Their goal was very clear," Wang told reporters in Beijing. Earlier reports on the raid had made no mention of Olympic targets.
China has ramped up anti-terror preparations before the August Games. The nation's top police official last year labeled terrorism the biggest threat facing the event.
The raid and the plane crash attempt were mentioned during a meeting of Xinjiang delegates to parliament's annual session that focused in part on terrorism.
The plane incident occurred Friday morning shortly after the China Southern Airlines flight left the far western city of Urumuqi at 10:35 a.m., said Nur Bekri, the governor of the Xinjiang region.
"From what we presently know, this was an attempt to crash the plane," Bekri said.
Bekri said the crew responded and brought the plane to an emergency landing in the western city of Lanzhou with no damage or injuries. He gave few details.
Chinese forces have for years been battling a low-intensity separatist movement among Xinjiang's Uighurs, a Turkic Muslim people culturally and ethnically distinct from China's Han majority.
China says its main terror threat comes from the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, or ETIM. The group has been labeled a terrorist organization by both the United Nations and the United States. East Turkestan is another name for Xinjiang.
The group is not believed to have more than a few dozen members.
Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
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