BEIJING – China's top security official has blamed the militant group East Turkestan Islamic Movement for a suicidal vehicle attack that killed five people in the heart of Beijing earlier this week.
Meng Jianzhu, chief of the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the ruling Communist Party, said the group organized the attack in an interview with the Hong Kong-based Phoenix Television when he was in the capital of Uzbekistan attending a regional security summit.
An SUV plowed through bystanders, crashed and burst into flames near the Tiananmen Gate on Monday, killing three in the car and two tourists and injuring dozens.
Beijing police have arrested five people in connection with the attack and called it a planned terror strike — the city's first in recent history.
