Getty Police are very militant in Xinjiang province

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Security forces were engaged in a 56-day "continuous" fight to destroy the group which is under the direction of "foreign extremists" after an attack on a coal mine in September in the Aksu region of the mainly-Muslim Xinjiang province in far west China which shares a border with Kyrgyzstan, state media revealed today. It was the first official mention of the Aksu attack, in which the Xinjiang Daily said 16 people died, including five police officers, and another 18 people were injured.

Unofficial reports at the time said 50 people had been killed. Attackers fled to the mountains and a manhunt was launched, with more than 10,000 people taking part every day, forming an "inescapable dragnet", the paper said. Beijing maintains it faces a serious threat from Islamist militants and separatists in energy-rich Xinjiang, where hundreds have died in mainly state-led violence in recent years.

Getty Muslim Uighurs burning a Chinese flag

Critics say the Government is accusing "foreign controllers" in order to shift the blame away from their continued suppression of the Muslim Uighur community's culture and religion. Rights groups say China has never presented convincing evidence of the existence of a cohesive militant group fighting the government. Xinjiang Daily said: "After 56-days of continuous fighting, Xinjiang destroyed a violent terrorist gang directly under the command of a foreign extremist group. Aside from one person who surrendered, 28 thugs were completely annihilated."

Getty Uighurs are more culturally aligned to central Asia

Two people who appeared to have Uighur names were leaders of the unnamed foreign group, the newspaper said. It said members of the group began watching extremist videos in 2008 and communicated six times with an extremist group outside of China's borders, requesting tactical guidance. It is unclear why the government had not disclosed the attack on the coal mine earlier. Some previous attacks have also not been reported until days or even weeks after they happened. Hong Lei, a spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry, said: "China must continue to fight against this kind of terrorist attack with determination, to protect the lives of the people, protect the stability and safety of society."

Pictures on the Xinjiang government's news website showed armed security forces crossing rivers and clambering up rocks in what looked like a remote part of the region. It also showed civilians with sticks fanning out across scrubland helping to look for the suspects. Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the main exiled group the World Uyghur Congress, said the dead included women, children and the elderly. Other reports had similar details. He said: "By once more pointing the finger at so-called foreign controllers, Beijing is shirking responsibility for its own policies which are the real reason for Uighur resistance."

Getty Most Uighurs are Muslims