12 face execution for deadly July attacks in China's restive west

Twelve people have been sentenced to death for organizing attacks that left dozens of people dead in the restive western Chinese province of Xinjiang earlier this year, CNN reported.

The incident -- described by authorities as an "organized and premeditated" terror attack -- occurred in the region's Shache County on July 28, when a gang wielding knives and axes attacked civilians, a police station, government offices and smashed vehicles.

Police returned fire and shot dozens of the attackers, state media reported at the time.

State media has reported a wave of violent attacks in Xinjiang in recent months.

Twenty-nine people were killed and 130 injured when men armed with long knives stormed a train station in Kunming in March. The next month, an attack on a train station in Urumqi, Xinjiang's capital, left three dead, including the attackers, and an attack on an Urumqi market in May killed at least 39 people.