Report: Muslim Terrorists Trained in Pakistan Attack Western China

A spate of violent attacks over the weekend left 18 people dead in China's Western Xinjiang province, the BBC Reports, and the local Chinese government said that Muslim terrorists trained in Pakistan were responsible for the mayhem.

According to the Kashgar city government in Xinjiang, which released an official online statement, armed terrorists stormed a restaurant on Saturday, killing two people, and then stabbed four more people to death outside the restaurant. The police claimed they shot and killed five assailants when they responded to the attack.

In another incident on Saturday, two terrorists attacked a truck driver stopped at a red light, stabbing him to death. They then drove the truck into bystanders, exited the vehicle and continued random assaults. The attackers were then set upon by a mob, which in turn killed one assailant and captured the other.

The Pakistani Foreign Office condemned the attacks, and said that the government of Pakistan will 'continue to extend its full cooperation and support to the People's Republic of China agains the separatist East Turkestan Islamic Movement' (ETIM), which has been implicated in the Xinjiang attacks. Both the UN and the Chinese government have designated the ETIM as an international terrorist organization.

Violence in Xinjiang has flared up numerous times in recent years due to conflicts between the Muslim Uygurs and the influx of ethnic Han Chinese.