Report: Armed crowd in eastern Uzbekistan surrounds police, talks underway
Armed crowds in the eastern Uzbek city of Andijan surrounded police in two city districts on Friday and talks are underway to free them, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported, citing President Islam Karimov's office.
The report came amid a surge of unrest in the town, as well as in the capital Tashkent, where a suicide bomber was shot and killed outside the Israeli Embassy on Friday morning.
U.S. Embassy says police shot and killed suicide bomber outside Israeli Embassy in Tashkent
Police shot and killed a suicide bomber outside the Israeli Embassy in the Uzbek capital on Friday, the U.S. Embassy in Tashkent said.
Police had sealed off the street where the embassy is located but denied that anything was amiss. However, the U.S. embassy said in a warden message on its Web site that an attacker had been killed. It did not report any other casualties.
"There was an incident right outside the Israeli embassy in Tashkent and it is under investigation," said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev, giving no further details. No one answered phones at the Israeli Embassy in Tashkent.
The shooting came as tensions rose in the Central Asian nation. Armed protesters freed inmates from a prison overnight and shooting was reported in the eastern city of Andijan on Friday as thousands of activists rallied to protest the trial of 23 Muslim businessmen on extremism charges.
Uzbek President Islam Karimov and other leaders were flying to the eastern city, Andijan, while the Defense Ministry held an urgent meeting on the unrest, police and government officials said on condition of anonymity.
In southern Tashkent, dozens of police stood at either end of Abdulla Kahhor Street, where the Israeli Embassy is located, on Friday morning and prevented people from approaching. The building itself was surrounded by red police tape. An ambulance was seen entering the area.
It was the second known attempted suicide attack against the Israeli Embassy in a year. In July, two Uzbek guards including the ambassador's personal bodyguard were killed in a suicide bombing at the embassy. The U.S. Embassy and Uzbek prosecutors' office were also targeted in nearly simultaneous suicide attacks then, which killed seven people in all.
Uzbek leaders blamed Islamic extremists for the bombings.