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At Least Two Killed In Tashkent Bombings

30 July 2004 -- At least three explosions were reported today in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, outside the U.S. Embassy, the Israeli Embassy, and the Prosecutor-General's Office.

At least two people are reported to have been killed and five others wounded.

Israel's ambassador to Uzbekistan, Tzvi Cohen, says at least two Uzbeks were killed in the explosion outside the Israeli Embassy. ITAR-TASS quotes a guard at the embassy as confirming only one death, however.

Israeli radio is reporting the blast at the Israeli Embassy was caused by a suicide bomber. But Cohen later said that report could not be confirmed.

RFE/RL correspondent Sadriddin Ashurov was in the area of the Israeli embassy at the time of the explosion and reports what he saw.

"When the explosion took place outside the Israeli embassy, I was at a seminar in another building [close to the embassy]. I heard a loud explosion, and 10 minutes later we were asked to leave the building. After I left the building, I saw that there had been an explosion outside the Israeli embassy. According to some eyewitness I talked to, it was a suicide bombing. The building is now cordoned off by the police, and they are not letting anyone come near," Ashurov said.

Our correspondent said it doesn't appear as if the Israeli embassy building itself was damaged. "I saw two or three ambulances arriving at the site when I was there. The people whom I talked to said there might have been casualties, but they didn't know who or how many. The explosion took place outside the building, and as far as I know it wasn't damaged," Ashurov said.

Israeli radio reports that all Israeli personnel were safe inside the embassy building at the time of the blast. Uzbek security forces are conducting searches of the area.

Uzbek Interior Minister Zakirjon Almatov and Prosecutor-General Rashid Kadyrov say at least five people were injured in the explosion at the Prosecutor-General's Office. Almatov and Rashidov say a male suicide bomber entered the lobby of the building and detonated his explosives.

Witnesses also say a suicide bomber was responsible for the attack at the U.S. embassy. They say a man entered the guard booth outside the embassy and exploded his bomb.

There are no immediate reports of casualties in that explosion.

The bombings come as trials are under way in Tashkent and in Karshi involving terrorism suspects.

The Tashkent court proceedings are against 13 men and two women who are suspected of being involved in suicide bombings and attacks on law enforcement officers in the western Uzbek city of Bukhara and in Tashkent in late March and early April.

Forty-seven people were killed in those attacks -- 33 of them the attackers.

(RFE/RL/Agencies)

Copyright (c) 2004. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org