ANDIZHAN, Uzbekistan - A brief but intense gun battle overnight in the eastern Uzbek town of Andizhan indicated on Tuesday that some pockets of resistance remained four days after a massacre when troops suppressed a rebellion.
The United States, hardening its line on Uzbekistan which is an ally in the war on terrorism, said on Monday it was "deeply disturbed" by reports that soldiers fired on protesters last Friday in the mostly Muslim Central Asian state.
Residents of this leafy city of 300,000 have lain flowers on the parched pools of blood outside School No. 15 on Cholpon Avenue, where witnesses have told Reuters Uzbek troops gunned down hundreds of people, including women and children. "We are deeply disturbed by the reports that the Uzbek authorities fired on demonstrators," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters. "We certainly condemn the indiscriminate use of force against unarmed civilians and deeply regret any loss of life."
The rebellion in Andizhan, sparked by the trial of 23 Muslim businessmen and blamed by President Islam Karimov on Islamic extremists, has become the bloodiest chapter in the country's post-Soviet history.
The United States has said it is worried that Islamic militants were released from prison when rebels freed 23 businessmen and 2,000 other inmates from jail on Friday.
Residents and a local human rights activist say the rebellion was staged by locals who were protesting against poverty, corruption and Karimov's hard line against Muslims.
A visit by foreign diplomats to Andizhan, which Britain had pressed for, was postponed, a diplomatic source said.
"The visit to Andizhan was initially supposed to take place today but we were informed this morning that it had been postponed until tomorrow or the day after tomorrow," he said.
A 10-minute gun battle could be heard in the center of town late on Monday, near the municipal communications building.
"We were chasing the bandits," one police officer said on Tuesday, before being silenced by a colleague.
In shocking accounts, the witnesses say the first to be killed were 10 police hostages, pushed ahead of the crowd by rebels who earlier seized a government building.
Soldiers later killed some of the wounded with single shots to the head, they said.
"BLOOD, BLOOD, EVERYWHERE"
"It was a massacre," said a 31-year-old cobbler, one of three witnesses to the slaughter outside the school interviewed by Reuters in Andizhan since Sunday. "This sickening smell of blood, smashed brains, guts, and blood, blood, everywhere. I could not put my feet on a dry spot.
Karimov, in power since 1989, has denied troops fired at civilians, but said many rebels had been killed.
Tension remains high in the town, effectively sealed off to much of the outside world by police cordons and road blocks.
The building that rebels seized -- and where troops first opened fire on a crowd of thousands of protesters and onlookers -- is surrounded by soldiers and armored personnel carriers.
Thousands fled the city on foot following the uprising and human rights groups say they now fear a wave of repression.
Around 500 people managed to cross the closed border with Kyrgyzstan, where refugee workers said 20 had gunshot wounds.
The violence in Andizhan followed protests in the nearby Kyrgyz cities of Osh and Jalal Abad, which led to the overthrow of Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev in March -- the third long-serving leader of an ex-Soviet state to go in 18 months.