BEIJING, May 25 (Reuters) - China has launched a nationwide, year-long "anti-terror operation", state media said on Sunday, days after announcing a similar crackdown targeting the troubled Xinjiang region following an attack which killed dozens.
Security forces were ordered to prevent militants moving beyond the region in China's far west, which has a large Muslim Uighur minority and where five suicide bombers struck on Thursday in the Xinjiang capital of Urumqi.
"Police are urged to stop terrorists from striking again and prevent terrorists and religious extremists from spreading from Xinjiang to the rest of the country," said the official Xinhua news agency, citing China's Ministry of Public Security.
A similar campaign was launched in Xinjiang on Friday after the region's deadliest attack in years which state media reported had killed 31 people at a vegetable market.
The attackers ploughed two vehicles into an open market and hurled explosives. Many of the 94 wounded were elderly shoppers, according to witnesses.
China has been grappling with a rise in suicide attacks. A car burst into flames at the edge of Beijing's Tiananmen Square last October, killing five people. (Reporting by Paul Carsten; editing by David Stamp)
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