China breaks up 12 terror cells: state media

BEIJING (AFP) — Chinese police in a remote northwestern city have broken up 12 terrorist cells this year as part of the nation's pre-Olympic security blitz, state-run press said on Wednesday.

The announcement is the latest in a series of statements aimed at highlighting what China says is a major threat facing next month's Beijing Games that emanates from its mainly Muslim Xinjiang region.

The 12 groups were dismantled by police in the Silk Road oasis city of Kashgar and were all linked to international terrorist organisations, the Beijing News reported, quoting a local official.

Huang Sanping, the city's deputy Communist Party chief, was quoted as saying that the members of the cells were "jobless drifters, ex-convicts" or people "disgruntled with society."

There was no mention of what they were allegedly plotting or if any weapons had been found, but Huang again drew the ...