Update | Flamethrower used to flush out militants in China’s Xinjiang region, says state media

Chinese paramilitary special forces used flamethrowers to smoke terror suspects out of their hiding place in a cliffside cave during a recent counterterrorism operation in the far western Xinjiang region, the military’s official newspaper said on Monday.

The troops had been hunting “dozens of terrorists who had fled to the Tianshan Mountains after brutally killing civilians over a month ago,” the report said, without specifying where and when the operation took place.

READ MORE: Chinese forces kill 28 ‘terrorists’ blamed for deadly Xinjiang coal mine attack

The report came on the back of a recent confirmation by Xinjiang official news outlet Ts.cn that 16 people, including three police officers, were killed after a group of suspected terrorists attacked a coal mine in the border prefecture of Aksu in mid-September.

The confirmation of the Aksu coal mine attack came shortly after terror attacks rocked the heart of Paris on November 13.

Radio Free Asia, which first reported the coal mine attack, said more than 50 people were killed and another 50 injured. It was directed by an overseas extremist group, according to Ts.cn.

One suspect surrendered while the remaining 28 were killed during the manhunt.

On Monday, the military newspaper revealed that the terror suspects had robbed police of their firearms during the Aksu attack and had gone into hiding in a cave by a cliff in the Tianshan Mountains.