Kyrgyzstan's weak military attempted Wednesday to regain control of the city of Osh, a major transit point for Afghan heroin and the epicenter of ethnic violence that has driven much of the Uzbek population from the country's poor, rural south.
Troops encircled the city with checkpoints and held the central square but citizens reported that some soldiers were also looting food aid, casting doubt on the government's ability to re-establish stability after nearly a week of brutal attacks.
The leader of Kyrgyzstan's Uzbek community said the death toll among Uzbeks exceeded 300. The official toll on both sides is 189, although officials have acknowledged it is likely far higher. More than 100,000 Uzbeks have fled to Uzbekistan, with tens of thousands more camped on the Kyrgyz side of the border.
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Uzbek soldiers take care of an Uzbek refugee baby in the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh while thousands wait to cross the border into Uzbekistan, near the border with Uzbekistan, Monday, June 14, 2010. Some thousands of refugees have fled the pogrom that began last week in southern Kyrgyzstan. (AP Photo/Faruk Akkan,CHA)
Uzbek refugees seen in the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh, near the border with Uzbekistan, Monday, June 14, 2010. Thousands of refugees have fled southern Kyrgyzstan. (AP Photo/Faruk Akkan,CHA)
Uzbek refugees seen near the eastern Uzbek city of Andijon while waiting to cross the border into Uzbekistan, Monday, June 14, 2010. (AP Photo/Faruk Akkan,CHA)
An Uzbek woman, center, who says she fled from the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh after her family was killed, weeps as she stands in line in no-man's-land near the Uzbek village of Jalal-Kuduk waiting for permission to cross into Uzbekistan, Monday, June 14, 2010. (AP Photo/Anvar Ilyasov)
Uzbek refugees who fled from Kyrgyzstan live in a refugee camp on the border at the Uzbek village of Erkishlok, Tuesday, June 15, 2010. (AP Photo/Anvar Ilyasov)
Kyrgyz special forces prepare their rifles before heading a convoy to drive under fire from an airport to the center of the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh, Kyrgyzstan, Monday, June 14, 2010. Some 100,000 minority Uzbeks fleeing a purge by mobs of Kyrgyz massed at the border Monday, an Uzbek leader said, as the deadliest ethnic violence to hit this Central Asian nation in decades left a major city smoldering. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
Kyrgyz Emergency Situation Ministry soldiers load bags of flour onto a truck at a grain elevator in Kara-Suu, a small town 23 km (14 miles) northeast of Osh on Tuesday, June 15, 2010. Rioting has killed at least several hundred people in the Central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan, the Red Cross said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
Kyrgyz Emergency Situation Ministry soldiers load bags of flour onto a truck at a grain elevator in Kara-Suu, a small town 23 km (14 miles) northeast of Osh on Tuesday, June 15, 2010. Rioting has killed at least several hundred people in the Central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan, the Red Cross said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
An Uzbek, Kurgunbai Inambayev, is seen in the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh on Tuesday, June 15, 2010. Inambayev said the bruises on his face were inflicted by Kyrgyz attackers during days of ethnic rioting between Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbeks. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
Uzbek men pray during a funeral ceremony for the remains of victims killed during ethnic rioting between Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbeks in the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh, Wednesday, June 16, 2010. Kyrgyzstan is observing 3 days of mourning for the victims of the recent mass-scale riots in the republic's southern regions. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
An Uzbek men walks in a suburb of the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh, Tuesday, June 15, 2010. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
Uzbek women who fled from the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh, cry as they wait for permission to cross into Uzbekistan on Tuesday, June 15, 2010. Uzbekistan closed the border Tuesday, leaving many camped out on the Kyrgyz side or stranded behind barbed-wire fences in no-man's land. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
Uzbek men dig graves preparing to bury victims who died during ethnic rioting between Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbeks, in the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh on Tuesday, June 15, 2010. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
Uzbek men pray during the funeral of a victim who was killed during ethnic rioting between Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbeks in the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh on Tuesday, June 15, 2010. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
A Kyrgyz Interior Ministry Forces officer conducts house-to-house searches in the Anoshin neighborhood in the city of Osh, southern Kyrgyzstan, Monday, June 14, 2010. (AP Photo/Alexander Merkushev)
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