The New Dominion

Just a quick post – BBC’s got a story about a gun battle that occured Thursday between seven “militants” and police in Jiashi County (伽师县), or in Uyghur, Peyziwat County, near Kashgar. BBC’s stories are based on “reports from the scene” rather than the usual release Xinhua News Network, which is interesting as I believe it represents the first time a description of the attack went directly to a Western media outlet without first going through Xinhua. And as usual, mum’s the word at Xinhua’s Xinjiang Channel until the authorites figure out the best way to break the news and the best way to deal with BBC getting to it first. BBC seems to be just as confused as we are, with the title and the summary noting two police fatalities, and the actual article itself noting first “At least two policeman are in the hospital” then later saying “Between two and six police officers are in the hospital.” We’ll try to keep tabs on this incident as more details come to light. Stay tuned.