Police and military clashed with women suicide terrorists in the Uzbekistan capital today and 23 people were killed in a third day of violence that rattled Tashkent.
At least 42 people have been killed in the worst unrest in the former Central Asian Soviet republic since it became a staunch ally in the US led war on terror after the September 11th attacks.
The majority Muslim country has a secular government and is host to hundreds of US troops at a tightly secured military base near the Afghan border.
Nineteen people were killed and 26 wounded on Sunday and Monday.
Government forces besieged an apartment building near the presidential residence in Tashkent for nearly five hours today after confronting the suicide bombers.
Gunfire and explosions were heard throughout the day.
The violence was centred near the official home of President Islam Karimov.
The Interior Ministry said that 20 alleged terrorists and three police were killed in the confrontations. Another five police were wounded.
The militants blew themselves up with home-made explosives as police tried to arrest them, the ministry said.
Police stopped a small car and two alleged terrorists jumped out and detonated explosive-laden belts, killing themselves and three policemen.
Five other policemen were injured.
In a separate nearby bombing, four women in a red car had driven up to a police checkpoint. One of the women, dressed entirely in black, got out of the car and approached a bus.
When she ignored a police request to stop, they shot her in the legs, then she set off a bomb, said an eyewitness. The suicide bomber was decapitated in the blast.
The other three women in the car then ran into an apartment building, where a near five-hour stand-off began.
An Interior Ministry officer said 16 suspected terrorists - 11 men and five women - had been killed in the apartment building about 100 yards away from the suicide bombing site. Some had been shot by police but others killed themselves with grenades, he said.