ISIS terrorists from China’s Uighur ethnic minority have vowed to return home and “shed blood like rivers”, according to a terror-tracking firm, in what experts said marked the first ISIS threat against Chinese targets. The threat came in a half-hour video released on Monday by a division of the ISIS in western Iraq and featuring terrorists from China’s Uighur ethnic group, said the US-based SITE Intelligence Group, which analysed the footage.
China has for years blamed exiled Uighur “separatists” for a series of violent attacks in its western Xinjiang region – the Uighur homeland – and warned of the potential for terrorists to link up with global terror groups.
In the video, a Uighur fighter issued the threat against China just before executing an alleged informant.
“Oh, you Chinese who do not understand what people say! We are the soldiers of the Caliphate, and we will come to you to clarify to you with the tongues of our weapons, to shed blood like rivers and avenging the oppressed,” according to SITE’s translation.
A traditionally Muslim group, many Uighurs complain of cultural and religious repression and discrimination by China.
It appears to be the ISIS’ “first direct threat” against China, Dr Michael Clarke, an expert on Xinjiang at the National Security College of Australian National University, said.
“It is the first time that Uighur-speaking terrorists have claimed allegiance to IS,” he added.
The video showed China is now “very firmly a target of jihadist rhetoric,” Dr. Clarke said, marking a shift from years past when it rarely figured in statements by global terror groups.
But Dr. Clarke said it also could indicate a possible split among Uighur fighters, as it includes a warning to those fighting with the Al Qaeda-aligned Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) in Syria.
China maintains tight security in Xinjiang but a drumbeat of deadly unrest has continued. A knife attack last month left eight dead, including three attackers, police said.
The video was released the same day that China held the latest in a series of mass rallies of military police in Xinjiang meant to indicate Chinese resolve in crushing security threats.
More than 10,000 officers gathered Monday in the region’s capital Urumqi – the fourth such rally this year in Xinjiang.
Chinese authorities have tightened controls in the region, beefing up police checkpoints.
In one violence-wracked corner of Xinjiang, authorities are offering rewards of up to five million yuan ($730,000) to those who expose terror plots or “struggle, kill, wound, or subdue” any attackers.
