more uzbekistan news here (via the agonist). its still not clear what exactly is going on there--there are several bombings, some shoot-outs with police, etc. no confirmation of any of my rumors of the tashkent subway, charvak dam or fergana bombings (they were unconfirmed to begin with). the whole thing is likely to stay confused for the time being. one thing is certain, uzbekistan is experiencing a second day of violence. i fear for the safety of some people i know there.
the government seems to be pinning the blame on hizb-ut-tahir, their usual scapegoat--an organization that has no proven record of violence (HuT is an islamist party that advocates institution of an islamist government but only through non-violent means. the uzbek government nevertheless claims it is secretly a terrorist organization and often groups it with the overtly violent Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan/Turkistan). again, it will be a little while before the dust clears and we can see what comes of all of this.
incidentally, there are a large number of u.s. forces in uzbekistan now in karshi (southern uzbekistan). there are probably also a fair amount of off-duty u.s. military personnel in tashkent, a city they use for R & R from operations in afghanistan. (a guy i met in tashkent told me that soldiers are not allowed to go to any city in the country except for tashkent and karshi). so it's possible the u.s. military could get involved in some of the uzbek government's anti-terrorist raids.
UPDATE: for what it's worth radio free europe has picked up on the "unconfirmed reports" of an explosion near the charvak resevoir. this obviously doesn't mean the rumors i heard are true, just that others are hearing the same rumors. if it's true, it's pretty clear that any attempt to blow up the dam failed. someone would notice if tashkent was flooded.
