Chinese embassy in Kyrgyzstan hit by suspected suicide car bomb

Bishkek: A suspected suicide car bomber rammed the gates of the Chinese embassy in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek on Tuesday, killing the attacker and wounding at least three other people, officials said. An Interior Ministry spokesman said the car exploded inside the compound and quoted Deputy Prime Minister Janysh Razakov as describing the blast as "a terrorist act". Police cordoned off the building and the adjacent area, and the GKNB state security service said they were investigating the bombing that occurred around 1000 local time (0400 GMT). China condemned the assault and urged the Kyrgyz authorities to quickly investigate and determine the real situation behind the incident. "China is deeply shocked by this and strongly condemns this violent and extreme act," foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular news briefing in Beijing. Three embassy staff suffered minor injuries and had been taken to hospital, but no organisation had yet claimed responsibility, Hua said. China's state news agency Xinhua said five people were wounded: two security guards and three Kyrgyz nationals working at the embassy. Authorities in Kyrgyzstan routinely detain suspected militants they accuse of being linked to IS, which actively recruits from Central Asia. An anti-Chinese militant group made up of ethnic Uighurs most of whom live in China's Xinjiang region - is also believed by some to be active in Central Asia, although security experts have questioned that. In 2014, Kyrgyz border guards killed 11 people believed to be members of that group who had illegally crossed the Chinese-Kyrgyz border. Attacks on Chinese missions abroad are rare, although its embassy in Belgrade was hit in error during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999. A militant attack on a hotel in Mali in 2015 killed three Chinese citizens, and this year a Chinese UN peacekeeper was killed in an attack, also in Mali.