Kyrgyz mob burned Uzbek villages, slaughtered their residents and stormed police stations seeking to loot more wea-pons on Sunday as ethnic rioting engulfed new areas in southern Kyrgyzstan.
The interim government in the impoverished Central Asian nation ordered troops to shoot rioters dead but even that has failed to stop the spiralling violence that has left more than 100 people dead and about 1,250 wounded since Thursday night. Doctors and rights activists say that official toll is far too low because wounded minority Uzbeks are too afraid of being attacked again to go to hospitals.
The riots are the worst violence since former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev was ousted in a bloody uprising in April.
The Uzbeks have backed the interim government, while many Kyrgyz in the south support the toppled President.
Thousands of Uzbeks have fled in panic to the nearby border with Uzbekistan after their homes were torched by roving mobs of Kyrgyz men. Fires set by rioters have destroyed most of Osh and looters have stolen most of its food.
Triumphant crowds of Kyrgyz men took control of most of Osh on Sunday. Fires continued to rage across Osh and occasional shots were heard.
The rampages spread to Jalal-Abad, another major southern city.
[Meanwhile, several Pakistani students were held hostage on Sunday by extremists in Kyrgyzstan and one of them was shot dead, officials said, reports our Pakistan correspondent.]
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Cameron calls US Prez over oil spill
AGE CORRESPONDENT
LONDON
British Prime Minister David Cameron spoke to US President Barack Obama on phone for half-an-hour on Saturday night to discuss the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The two leaders “reaffirmed their confidence in the unique strength of the US-UK relationship.”
US President Obama made it clear that his remarks against BP were not anti-British in nature, a Downing Street spokesperson said.
Mr Obama is facing strong criticism in Britain for referring to the oil giant by its old name of British Petroleum.
The Bhopal case verdict has also been unfavourable reports in the British media comparing the US response against Union Carbide and its management and the response against BP in the oil spill.
The Downing Street said there was no anti-British rhetoric by the United States and that the US President was not undermining value of BP.