Seven people were killed and three wounded in an assault by a member of a radical movement in Kazakhstan. The Prosecution has officially classified the incident as a terrorist attack.
The suicide blast and shootout happened in Kazakhstan's southern city of Taraz on Saturday. Seven people, including five policemen were killed. Officials said a robber raided a weapons store, killing a security guard in the process, before trying to make an escape in a car. Several policemen were shot dead in the subsequent pursuit. When police eventually tried to arrest him the man blew himself up.That blast claimed more victims. It comes just two weeks after twin explosions in another Kazakh city, Atyrau, for which an Islamic militant group claimed responsibility. Minutes after a bomb planted in a refuse bin on a street went off, a man killed himself in an apparent suicide bombing near an apartment building. Both incidents have been qualified as acts of terrorism. The same day the Jund al-Khilafah (Soldiers of the Caliphate) militant group posted a statement on the Internet claiming responsibility for both attacks, and on November 9th the Prosecutor General's Office announced that investigators had obtained evidence confirming that the group had been behind the two bombings.