Car Bombs Kill 13, Injure 120 in Uzbekistan

Six car bombs exploded within minutes of each other Tuesday outside Uzbekistan’s government headquarters and several other buildings in an assault apparently aimed at President Islam Karimov.

Karimov was not injured in the blasts, which killed at least 13 people and injured 120, the government said.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in the Central Asian nation. The bombings are unprecedented in Uzbekistan, and there are no immediately identifiable groups suspected in the assault.

Windows and partitions were shattered on several floors of the government headquarters. A fire started on the third floor, and billows of smoke could be seen rising high above the gutted section of the building.

Karimov appeared on state-controlled television shortly after the blasts and said they were an assassination attempt against him. The authoritarian president had been expected at a Cabinet meeting in the government headquarters but changed his plans at the last minute and was not present when the bombs went off, the Interfax news agency said.

“The task of these people was to spoil our present lives, to mislead the people, to scare the people,” Karimov said. “Let them know that we have the strength and trust that we’ve chosen the right path. No force will ever make us change the course.”

Karimov has led Uzbekistan since it gained independence in the 1991 Soviet breakup, and Tuesday’s attack was one of the worst outbreaks of violence during his tenure.

The first bomb went off in a car outside the Interior Ministry building. Police were sealing off the area when a car broke through the cordon and drove toward the government headquarters.

Security guards opened fire, but the car reached the headquarters. Two passersby were killed in the shootout, but the attackers escaped from the car and fled, police said. Then the vehicle exploded.

Within minutes, four more car bombs exploded near official buildings around Tashkent.