China foiled "terrorist" groups targeting Olympics

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has foiled plans by five "terrorism" groups to target the Beijing Olympics, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday, citing a public security official.

In the first six months of the year, police detained 82 people in the country's restive far western Xinjiang region who had allegedly plotted to sabotage the Beijing Olympics, Xinhua said, citing Chen Zhuangwei, head of the Public Security Bureau of Xinjiang capital Urumqi.

The report is the latest in a string of alleged plots from Xinjiang, a mainly Muslim region where Beijing accuses militant Uighurs of working with al Qaeda to bring about an independent state called East Turkestan.

Uighur advocacy groups have denied the allegations and accuse China of using a security crackdown for the Olympics to clamp down on activists seeking greater autonomy for the region.

Many Muslim Uighurs resent the migration of Han Chinese to the region and government controls on their religion and culture.

Xinhua on Wednesday reported that Chinese police had shot and killed five people they said were seeking "holy war" and had been trained to kill Chinese who were from the Han ethnic majority.

The police in Urumqi on Tuesday raided an apartment where 15 Uighurs rushed out from hiding, wielding knives and shouting "sacrifice for Allah", the agency said citing an unidentified police officer.

The government had previously said it had foiled at least two Xinjiang-based plots this year to launch attacks during the Beijing Games.

(Reporting by Ian Ransom; Editing by Ken Wills and David Fox)