China unveils new counter-terror unit in Muslim-majority Xinjiang province

China has set up a new counter-terror special operations unit in its restive Muslim-majority Xinjiang province where a large number of security forces are conducting operations against the separatist East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM).

State-run Global Times reported on Wednesday that the Chinese People's Armed Police have for the first time unveiled to public a new counter-terror special operations unit called 'Mountain Eagle Commando' in the province.

China has two other counter-terrorism commando units - the Guangzhou-based Snow Leopard Unit, which was established in 2002, and the Beijing-based Falcon Unit, established in 1982.

The Armed Police aims to build commando forces capable of conducting missions at any time, in any place, under all weather conditions, the report said.

China blames the ETIM, believed to be an affiliate of the al-Qaeda, for numerous violent attacks in Xinjiang and other parts of the country.

Resource-rich Xinjiang province is home to about 10 million Uighurs - making up roughly half of China's 22 million Muslims. The province is restive for several years over settlements of Han Chinese.

China is facing severe criticism from western countries over reports that it is holding one million people, mostly ethnic Uighurs, in internment camps in Xinjiang.

In a white paper on Xinjiang last month, China defended the camps, describing them as re-education centres aimed at de-radicalising sections of the Uighur Muslim population from extremism and separatism.

In another white paper issued last week, China said the training centres have eliminated religious extremism in the province and as a result no terrorist incidents were reported there in the past three years.