Report: Police kill 5 suspects after bombings in outlying Chinese province during Olympics

Police sealed off a six-lane road leading into the area from the airport with two strands of white plastic tape. A uniformed policeman stood in the middle of the road preventing unauthorized vehicles from passing but lifted the tape to allow a police car to go through.

Police detained an Associated Press reporter and photographer while they were reporting outside the security cordon Sunday. While being driven in by police within the restricted area, they saw one of the explosion sites: a storefront in a line of shops was burnt out, and a tricycle parked in front of the store was completely charred. Locals said a police station behind the store was the bomb's likely target.

About 50 people watched beside the road. They discussed the incident among themselves, but when asked by a reporter, would only say they neither saw nor heard the explosions.

"We've all heard that there was a bombing early this morning," said one man, a construction worker, who wouldn't give his name for fear of official retaliation. "This doesn't usually happen. It's happening now because of the Olympics, but I don't know who is doing it."

Two people from Hong Kong, two Britons and an Australian were unable to leave Kuqa because of the crackdown, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said in a statement. A man answering the phone at the Kuqa Hotel, who declined to give his name, said a tour group of 20 South Koreans were at the hotel.

The latest violence came a day after two Americans closely linked to the U.S. Olympic volleyball team were stabbed, one fatally, in Beijing on the first day of the games.

On Thursday, a video was purportedly made by the Turkistan Islamic Party was released in which the militant group threatened to attack buses, trains and planes during the two-week Olympic competition.

The group wants independence for Xinjiang and is believed to be based across the border in Pakistan, where security experts say core members have received training from al-Qaida.

Xinjiang is to the Uighurs, a Muslim minority with a long history of tense relations with the Chinese. The Uighurs, with a population of about 8 million, have complained that the Communist government has been restricting their religion and Turkic culture.

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