U.S. Designates Uzbek Group As Terror Organization

Washington, 26 May 2005 (RFE/RL) -- The U.S. government today designated an Uzbek militant faction known as the Islamic Jihad Group as a terrorist organization.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the Islamic Jihad Group is a splinter organization of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which Washington also calls a terror group.

Boucher said the Islamic Jihad Group is responsible for bombing attacks last summer on the U.S. and Israeli embassies and the office of the Uzbek prosecutor -- all in Tashkent -- in which two people were killed and nine were wounded.