A series of simultaneous explosions that struck the US and Israeli embassies and the prosecutor's office in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent today have killed at least two people and wounded five.
The three blasts in Uzbekistan, which is a US ally in the "war on terror", appeared to have been triggered by suicide bombers.
The action appeared co-ordinated, as the trial proceeded in Tashkent of 15 people on charges of trying to overthrow the ex-Soviet state in connection with attacks in February that killed nearly 50 people.
The defendants in the mass trial were said to have been followers of the Islamist al-Qaeda organisation.
Israeli sources said at least two people had died outside the Jewish state's embassy. "There are two dead, both Uzbek citizens, and there may be a third dead," an Israeli source told Reuters of the blast outside the Jewish state's embassy.
Another security source said the blast occurred in the embassy's security screening area for people wanting to enter the building.
Israeli officials said they did not know of any claim of responsibility for the explosion. The US embassy said there were no known injuries in the blast which happened outside the embassy compound.
Russia's Interfax news agency quoted an embassy official as saying the blast had been caused by a suicide bomber with explosives attached to his waist.
Uzbek Interior Minister Zakirdzhon Almatov said five people were injured outside the prosecutor's office. Police sealed off the building after an explosion in the lobby area.
Uzbekistan was a staging post for the US operation that ousted the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan and has allowed Washington the use of an air base.