TASHKENT, Uzbekistan — Suicide bombers staged nearly simultaneous attacks outside the U.S. and Israeli embassies here as well as at the top prosecutor’s office yesterday afternoon, killing at least two Uzbek guards and wounding nine others in a country that is a key U.S. ally in the war on terror.
The two local guards were killed at the Israeli Embassy, Foreign Ministry spokesman Ilkhom Zakirov said. Seven others were injured in the blast at the prosecutor general’s office, and two more were hurt at the U.S. Embassy. No foreigners were reported hurt.
A group calling itself the Islamic Holy War Group in Uzbekistan took responsibility for the attacks in a message yesterday on an Islamic Web site known for carrying statements by militant groups.
“A group of young Muslims carried out martyrdom operations that confused the apostate government and its infidel allies of Americans and Jews,” the group said.
The statement in Arabic said attacks would continue, and was signed by “your brother in Bukhara: Mohammed al-Fatteh.”
The declaration couldn’t be verified, and Mr. Zakirov said the government hadn’t received any claim of responsibility and didn’t know of the group.
All three suicide bombers were men, Mr. Zakirov said, and one had identification documents indicating he was an Uzbek citizen.
Interior Minister Zokirjon Almatov said the bombers were prevented from entering the buildings of their targets to inflict more damage. “Terrorists wanted to blow themselves up inside the buildings, but they weren’t allowed,” he told Russia’s Interfax news agency.
The attacks occurred as 15 suspects with purported links to al Qaeda were being tried for a wave of violence earlier this year that left at least 47 persons dead. Those attacks included Central Asia’s first suicide bombings.
Uzbekistan, a former Soviet republic bordering on Afghanistan, has allowed hundreds of U.S. troops to use a southern air base that was instrumental in ousting the Taliban regime. Uzbek President Islam Karimov runs a strict regime that has sought to wipe out Islamic extremism and allows no opposition to his rule, which dates to Soviet times.
He was returning immediately from vacationing in the resort city of Yalta in Ukraine.
Outside the heavily fortified American compound, a body believed to be that of a suicide bomber lay across the street from the entrance. The high security wall surrounding the compound appeared to be scarred with black burn marks, and the area was blocked off by heavily armed police and soldiers.
Nargiza Usmanova, who operates a flower kiosk down the street, said the “building jumped” when the explosion went off. She said she had seen several people lying in the street after the blast, and they appeared to have survived the blast because they were still moving.
The U.S. Embassy said two Uzbek police officers were injured.
“The United States deplores this act of terrorist violence,” State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said in Washington.
The attack at the prosecutor’s office appeared to do the most damage, blowing out windows at the entrance and leaving roof panels and lights hanging from the ceiling. Debris was blown into the street.
Debris likewise littered the street outside the Israeli Embassy, also under heavy guard. A window appeared to have been broken, but the high wall protecting the building didn’t appear to have sustained any serious damage.
Israel was sending a team to Uzbekistan to investigate the bombing, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said. One of those killed at the embassy was the ambassador’s personal bodyguard, Israel’s Channel Two television reported.
Konstantin Ivanov, a nearby resident who said he arrived at the scene before police, described seeing four severed human limbs in the street.
Many Jews have left Uzbekistan since the 1991 Soviet collapse, but it is still home to a sizable Jewish community.
Security was being reinforced at all embassies in Tashkent, along with stricter searches at the checkpoints that always guard entrances to the city, Mr. Zakirov said.
The 15 suspects on trial for the March and April attacks have pleaded guilty to charges of terrorism, murder and religious extremism and could face the death penalty.
Several of the defendants said the U.S. and Israeli embassies had been intended targets in the wave of explosions that officials say killed 33 suspected militants, 10 police and four bystanders.
In testimony at the trial that started Monday, defendants described a network of Islamic extremists extending into Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas, where they said would-be militants were trained in shooting and how to use airplanes in attacks.
They claimed to belong to an extremist group called Jamoat, which means “society” in Uzbek, whose leader previously fought with the al Qaeda-connected Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. However, he broke ties with the movement in forming the new group.
Yesterday, Pakistani officials announced the arrest of al Qaeda suspect Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, whose wife is Uzbek. Ghailani was wanted in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
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