Attacks Rock U.S.-Ally Uzbekistan

Two suicide bombings, attacks on police and an explosion at an alleged terrorist bomb-making factory in Uzbekistan killed 19 people and injured 26, the Central Asian country's prosecutor-general said Monday.

Prosecutor-general Rashid Kadyrov said the events began Sunday night with an explosion that killed 10 people at a house being used by an extremist in the central province of Bukhara.

There were also two attacks on police Sunday night and early Monday, killing three policemen, and two attempted suicide bombings near the Chorzu bazaar in Tashkent's Old City, killing three policemen and a young child, he said.

The explosions occurred after officials in Pakistan had said Saturday they had wounded the leader of a prominent Uzbek terror group linked to al Qaeda. The Pakistan army said Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan chief Tahir Yuldash was wounded in a military operation to track down terrorists in tribal areas near the Afghan border, but apparently escaped.

A series of near-simultaneous bombings in Tashkent in February 1999 were blamed on Yuldashev's group, which Pakistani officials say has been subsumed by al Qaeda since the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. Uzbek authorities said those blasts, which killed 16 people, were an attempt to assassinate President Islam Karimov.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ilkhom Zakirov said there were "several terrorist acts" and that arrests had been made.

Uzbekistan has been a strong supporter of U.S.-led campaign in Afghanistan, and American troops are using a military base at the southern city of Khanabad for operations.

The U.S. Embassy said Uzbek authorities had confirmed "multiple explosions" had occurred, and that a terrorist safe house had been raided and several arrests made.

The embassy warned in a statement that "other terrorists are believed still at large and may be attempting additional attacks." It cautioned Americans to be on "highest alert."

An embassy office in the center of Tashkent was closed because of the blasts, but the main building remained open.

Zakirov tied the explosions to the recent train bombings in Madrid and with continuing turbulence in neighboring Afghanistan.

Police and intelligence agents closed off the sprawling Chorsu market and vans with investigators were massed in front of the "Children's World" store, where the blast occurred. There was no visible sign of an explosion from afar.

The market would normally be filled with thousands of people selling everything from goat meat to clothing to carpets. On Monday, however, only cleaning crews could be seen.

At the nearby First City Hospital where Interior Ministry officials said victims were taken, a man in the hallway was crying "Where is my daughter? Is she alive or dead?"

A nurse tried to the comfort him before a doctor approached and scolded her, telling her not to give any information to anyone — even victims' relatives. Information is tightly controlled in Uzbekistan, where there are no independent media and opposition parties are banned.