Report:Police kill two armed Uighurs

URUMQI, China, July 14 (UPI) -- China has alerted overseas Chinese individuals and groups about threats from al-Qaida in the wake of the ethnic violence in Urumqi.

China Daily reported the alert was sent out a day after the Islamic terrorist group threatened to target Chinese interests overseas in reprisal for the deaths of Muslim Uighurs in the deadly July 5 violence in Urumqi, capital of China's northwest Xinjiang-Uighur region.

China Daily said the threat came from al-Qaida's Algerian branch, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb or AQIM, which vowed revenge by targeting the 50,000 Chinese workers in Algeria and Chinese projects and workers across northwest Africa.

China Daily said it received the threat report from Stirling Assynt, an international consultancy firm in London.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a news conference Tuesday China will "take any measure necessary to protect the safety of its overseas institutions and citizens."

China has said the Urumqi violence killed 184 people of whom 138 were non-Muslims such as Han Chinese and 46 Uighurs.

"The information we provided is very, very real," Justin Crump, head of terrorism and country Risk at Stirling Assynt, was quoted as saying. "Although AQIM appears to be the first arm of al-Qaida to officially state they will target Chinese interests, others are likely to follow."

"Measures that the Chinese government take to stop riots do not target any specific ethnic population, but the violent crimes that aim to split China and mar the ethnic relationships," Qin said.

Meanwhile, Chinese police shot and killed two armed Uighurs in Urumqi, China Daily said. Another Uighur was injured in the Monday incident.

Local government officials said police on patrol spotted three Uighurs armed with long knives and batons, attacking a fourth Uighur.

The three refused to drop their weapons when told to do so by police, the newspaper said.