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Terrorists issue new Olympic threat: US analysts
An Islamic group has issued a new terrorist threat against the Beijing Olympics, US intel analysts say.
- Agencies
- Published: 12:31 August 8, 2008
- A Chinese boy passes an Olympic logo outside the National Stadium, known as the Bird's Nest.
- Image Credit: AP
Beijing: A little-known Islamic group has issued a new terrorist threat against the Beijing Olympics, US intelligence analysts said on Friday.
The Turkestan Islamic Party issued the threat on Wednesday in a video posted on the internet, urging Muslims "not to attend the games or be within the vicinity," the SITE Intelligence Group reported on its website.
In the six-minute video Call to the Global Muslim Ummah, the speaker urges Muslims to beware. "Do not stay on the same bus, on the same train, on the same plane, in the same buildings or any place the Chinese are," SITE quoted the speaker as saying.
A similar video from the group showed the Beijing Olympics logo in flames.
China has identified independence-seeking Uighur groups from its central Asian region of Xinjiang as the biggest potential terrorist threat during the Olympics.
China has said the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), a militant Uighur group, has plotted to sabotage the Olympics by trying to blow up a domestic airliner, kidnap foreigners and cause explosions at Olympics venues.
Uighur and human rights groups have accused China of exaggerating the threat from a group, whose actual strength is unclear.
Reacting to the latest threat in the video on Friday, Wang Wei, the general secretary of the Beijing Olympic organisers, said China would "spare no effort" in securing the games.
"Security is always a top job," Wang said. "We spare no efforts in making a safe games."
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