Kyrgyz Nationals Return to Their Homes in Osh

Residents of the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh have been returning to their houses after fleeing the violence during riots this month.

Photo: Kyrgyz Nationals Return to Their Homes in Osh

Armed police are patrolling the streets to prevent further outbursts of violence in the city where hundreds of people were killed and dozens of houses were burnt down during the ethnic conflict between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz, NTDTV says.

At least 294 people were killed last month in south Kyrgyzstan as crowds of men, some in uniform, attacked Uzbek neighborhoods and destroyed an estimated 2,000 houses.

Outright violence may have stopped for now, but tension is still simmering at the epicenter of the fighting -- the ancient Silk Road city of Osh. And many fear violence will erupt again and spread to other parts of Central Asia, an ethnically divided Muslim region north of Afghanistan and Iran, Reuters informs.