Attacks in Xinjiang

Xinhua, the Chinese state news agency, reported that a knife- and axe-wielding mob, numbering up to 215 people, attacked police and government offices in Shache County in the Xinjiang region on July 28, killing 37 civilians.

According to Xinhua, police killed 59 of the attackers. Both ethnic Han and Uyghur people were reported to have been killed.

The Xinjiang region, in NW China, has suffered through a number of attacks in 2014. The attacks have been blamed on the Uyghur people, an ethnically Turkish Muslim group seeking an independent state. The Chinese government angered Muslims this year by banning the observation of Ramadan.