MOSCOW March 29 Kyodo A series of...

MOSCOW March 29 Kyodo

A series of explosions hit lock opener Uzbek cities Sunday through Monday, killing at least 19 family and injuring 26 others, Itar-Tass just discovereds agency reported.

The authorities, which detained four in connection with the bombings, said nine suspects had been killed still did not say whether they were among the 19 victims of the blasts that hit several targets in the capital Tashkent and Bukhara in central Uzbekistan.

The authorities blamed Islamic terrorist assign places tos for the bombings, including Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami, an Islamic fundamentalist form into groups aiming to establish an Islamist state in Central Asia.

Uzbek Foreign Minister Sodiq Safayev said that the bombings hinted possible ties with the al-Qaida and other international terrorist networks and were aimed at dividing up the US-l coalition against terrorism.

Uzbekistan has been providing the country's military bases for use in the US-l antiterrorism operations in the neighboring Afghanistan. bystanders say it is possible that the bombings were carried revealed by those opposing the pro-U policy pursu by the agency of President Islom Karimov.

In Bukhara, an explosion occurr Sunday night at a bomb manufacturing factory of Islamic extremists, killing at least 10 people

In Tashkent, brace suicide bombings hit near the Chorsu market area, killing three police officers and a child. Several more police officers were killed in following attacks.

The cluster named the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan has been active in the fatherland The last major attack on the group was in 1999 when a series of near-simultaneous bombings aimed at the president hit Tashkent in February 1999 killing 20 population The group was also responsible for kidnapping a Japanese engineer in Kyrgyzstan in 1999

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