URUMQI, China, (AFP) - Heavily armed security forces were out in force in China's volatile Urumqi city Tuesday close to where police shot dead two Muslim Uighurs who state media claimed were calling for jihad. Large groups of police armed with semi-automatic weapons and batons were deployed close to the scene of Monday's violence, where Chinese authorities said police shot and killed two Uighur "lawbreakers" and wounded another. The shootings showed the capital of the northwest Xinjiang region remained a powder keg more than a week after ethnic unrest on July 5 left at least 184 people dead, despite an ongoing security clampdown. An Algerian-based Al-Qaeda affiliate was meanwhile calling for reprisals against Chinese workers in northern Africa, according to an intelligence report by London-based risk analysis firm Stirling Assynt. The call came from Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the Stirling report said. It is the first time Osama bin Laden's network has directly threatened China or its interests, it noted. "Although AQIM appear to be the first arm of Al-Qaeda to officially state they will target Chinese interests, others are likely to follow," said the report, which was first divulged by the South China Morning Post Tuesday. Osama bin Laden's network has not previously threatened China, but the Stirling report claimed that a thirst for vengeance over Beijing's clampdown in Xinjiang was spreading over the global jihadist community. Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said China would take all precautions to protect its overseas interests, while not commenting directly on the alleged Al-Qaeda threat. Stirling said the extremist group could well target Chinese projects in Yemen in a bid to topple the Beijing-friendly government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The spokesman also appealed for understanding from the Muslim world over China's handling of the unrest, while denying accusations from Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that it was guilty of "a kind of genocide", "We hope that the relevant Muslim countries and Muslims can recognise the nature of the July 5 incident in Urumqi," Qin told reporters. "The incident in Urumqi on July 5 was aimed at sabotaging China and sabotaging ethnic unity. It was orchestrated by the three forces (of terrorism, extremism and separatism) in and outside of China," he said. State news agency Xinhua Tuesday released its first detailed report of the event, saying the three Uighur men had tried to incite other Muslims to launch a "jihad", or holy war, and attacked a mosque guard before police shot them.