China trains Xinjiang police to use guns against attacks

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has sent weapons specialists to Xinjiang to train police as part of its crackdown on violent attacks, blamed by Beijing on Islamist militants and separatists, in the troubled far western region, state media reported on Wednesday.

Xinjiang, resource-rich and strategically located on the borders of central Asia, is home to the Muslim Uighur people. It has been beset by violence for years and a recent series of attacks, some of which Beijing has called "terrorism", have unnerved the country.