Thirteen attackers were shot dead while they assaulted a police station with explosives in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region on Saturday morning, the local government said.

The assailants rammed a truck into the Yecheng county public security bureau and detonated the explosives, a statement by the regional government's information office said.

Police shot and killed 13 attackers on the spot. Three policemen were slightly injured. No civilians were hurt, the statement said.

Order has been restored, and police are investigating the incident, it added.

The government gave no further details.

Kashgar prefecture's Yecheng is located more than 1,500 kilometers southwest of the regional capital Urumqi.

Xinjiang has experienced frequent attacks that have killed and injured innocent people in recent months.

The region saw its bloodiest day in five years on May 22, when 39 innocent people were killed and 94 others injured in Urumqi. The terrorists drove two vehicles through roadside fences, plowed into people at a market and then detonated explosives.

On April 30, three people were killed and 79 injured in an attack at a railway station in Urumqi.

On March 1, assailants from Xinjiang killed 29 civilians and injured another 143 at a train station in Yunnan province's capital Kunming.

Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences policy researcher Ma Pinyan said authorities should take more measures to combat terrorism since terrorists are using new methods to spread extremist thought.

"Lots of the suspects seized in these cases were led on by terrorist videos and audio products circulated through online chat tools, text messages and illegal preaching websites," he said.

He believed the war against terrorism in Xinjiang will be long-lasting.

The government should deal with attacks with an iron fist and improve people's livelihoods, he said.

"Only by improving people's livelihoods and ensuring social justice will the government win the hearts of the people," he added.

On Friday, the State Internet Information Office said authorities will prevent terrorist materials produced overseas from being disseminated in China, clear such information from the Internet, punish Web servers violating the rules and urge Internet companies to fulfill their responsibilities.

Contact the writers at gaobo@chinadaily.com.cn and anbaijie@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 06/22/2014 page1)