45 killed in Kyrgyzstan clashes
Mobs of armed men have torched Uzbek neighbourhoods in Kyrgyzstan in ethnic clashes that officials said left at least 45 people dead and 637 wounded in a Central Asian nation that hosts US and Russian military bases.
The rioting in Osh, the country's second-largest city, is the heaviest violence since former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev was toppled in a bloody uprising in April and fled the country. The unrest also spread to the capital, where armed mobs clashed with police and volunteer militia, according to witnesses.
The intensity of the conflict, which pits ethnic Kyrgyz against minority Uzbeks, appeared to take authorities by surprise and threw the fragile interim government's prospects for survival into doubt.
Quelling the violence will prove a decisive test of the government's ability to control the country, hold a June 27 vote on a new constitution and go ahead with new parliamentary elections scheduled for October.
Dozens of buildings across Osh were ablaze Friday after witnesses reported sustained gunfire beginning late Thursday. Gangs of young men armed with metal bars and stones attacked shops and set cars alight.
The interim government declared a state of emergency in Osh and some nearby areas and dispatched armored vehicles, troops and helicopters to pacify the situation. Soldiers were posted at routes into the city and at major intersections, but the fighting did not abate. Authorities imposed a curfew from 8pm to 6am until June 20.
Bakyt Omorkulov, a member of the Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society, a non-governmental organisation, said he was patrolling the streets with other volunteers to try to prevent further clashes. He said the troops' presence didn't help stabilize the situation, and more buildings were set ablaze as night fell.
He said the streets were filled with young men brandishing sticks and weapons, adding that Uzbek areas were particularly hard hit by the violence.
Ikram Abdumalitov, who lives in Osh, said earlier in the day that he saw about 1,000 young and armed Kyrgyz men marching toward Uzbek neighborhoods in eastern Osh. "The Uzbeks are in turn chopping down trees and blocking the road to their neighborhood," Mr Abdumalitov said.
Many of the injured had been stabbed or shot, Health Ministry spokeswoman Yelena Bailinova said, as she gave the death toll. She said many of those wounded were in grave condition.