2010 Aksu bombing

2010 Aksu bombing
Part of Xinjiang conflict
Location	Aksu, Xinjiang, People's Republic of China
Date	19 August 2010 10:30 – (UTC+3)
Target	Security personnel
Attack type	Bomb
Deaths	7+
Non-fatal injuries	14+
Suspected perpetrators	6 Uyghur lone wolves

The 2010 Aksu bombing was a bombing in Aksu, Xinjiang, People's Republic of China that resulted in at least seven deaths and fourteen injuries when an Uyghur man detonated explosives in a crowd of police and paramilitary guards at about 10:30 on 19 August, using a three-wheeled vehicle. The assailant targeted police officers in the area, and most of the victims were also Uyghurs. Xinhua news agency reported that 6 people were involved in the attack, and 2 had died; the other four were detained by police.

A number of violent incidents have occurred in Xinjiang since the 1990s. In the year before the attack, Xinjiang had ethnic tensions that continued to trouble the region. Before the 2010 Aksu blast, Xinjiang Governor Nur Bekri was quoted as saying Xinjiang faces a "long and fierce and very complicated struggle" because "Separatism in Xinjiang has a very long history, it was there in the past, it is still here now and it will continue in the future."

In July 2009, riots in Ürümqi resulted in the deaths of numerous Han Chinese and Uyghurs. There was another spate of attacks in the region a few months later.

The site of the explosion, Aksu (Uyghur: ئاقسۇ‎; Chinese: 阿克苏), is about 650 km (400 mi) west of Urumqi, and is just 60 km (37 mi) from the border with Kyrgyzstan. The bomb exploded at the T-intersection of Kalata Road (Uyghur: قالاتا يولى‎; Chinese: 喀拉塔路) and Wuka Road (Uyghur: ئۇكا يولى‎; Chinese: 乌喀路). According to a report by the Associated Press, two attackers drove a three-wheeled motorbike into a crowd and threw explosives from it. According to reports the attack was carried out by a man, who was arrested on the spot and whom Xinjiang government spokeswoman Hou Hanmin stated is Uyghur, and a woman who died during the attack.