Reports: 7 killed in Kazakhstan terror attack

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — Media in Kazakhstan cite authorities as saying that seven people, including five police officers, have been killed in an attack by radical Islamists on a police station in the southern city of Taraz.

The reported bombing and shootout on Saturday is the latest in a recent string of Islamist-related attacks in Kazakhstan and will deepen worries of a mounting terrorist threat in the former Soviet Central Asian nation.

IA-Novosti Kazakhstan cites deputy Prosecutor General Nurmakhanbet Isayev as identifying one suspect involved in the attack. It is unclear if it was a suicide bombing.

Kazakhstan has been largely untroubled by Islamist-related violence, but the last few months have seen an anomalous spike in attacks that authorities have tied to radical organizations.