Chinese authorities probe 'terrorist' attack that left 2 hostages dead

Beijing, China (CNN) -- Assailants who held eight hostages and executed a deadly attack in China's Xinjiang region on Monday carried a flag with "Holy War" written in Arabic on it, a regional spokeswoman said.

The attack on a police station in the city of Hotan left two hostages and several assailants dead, said Hou Hanmin, spokeswoman for the northwestern Chinese autonomous region. Six hostages were rescued, she said.

"This is for sure a violent terrorist attack," Hou said Tuesday, "but we still need the police and relevant departments to further investigate which organization is related to the attack."

Hou also said the attackers carried an explosive device and a Molotov cocktail and set fire to the police station.

Xinjiang province was the site of ethnic violence in 2009 that killed nearly 200 people and injured 1,800 others. Authorities blamed independence-seeking members of the Uighur ethnic group, a minority group of Turkic-speaking Muslims.

The 2009 violence came after long-simmering tensions between Uighurs and ethnic Han Chinese, who make up nearly 90 percent of China's 1.3 billion people.

Comment: THIS ATTACK WOULD BE VERY SERIOUS IF IT IS MADE, BECAUSE IN CHINA AND IN THOSE COUNTRIES IN THAT AREA, THERE ARE A LOT OF PEOPLE AND A LOT OF PEOPLE SHOULD DIE BECAUSE OF THESE KIND OF ATACKS.