In the eastern Uzbek town of Andijan, police and troops fought with armed tribesmen protesting the government. Several hundred are believed dead. Andijan is in the Ferghana valley, the most densely populated area in the region (and shared by three countries). Poverty and government corruption has made the Ferghana valley a hotbed of discontent. Some of the unrest is led by Islamic radicals, but everyone in the area is unhappy with the Uzbek government. It has long been feared that this discontent would explode into a wide scale uprising. This may be it.