Bomb kills four in south Thailand
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
A BOMB planted on a motorcycle in a busy market in southern Thailand killed four people yesterday, the army said, the latest victims of a Muslim separatist insurgency in which more than 2,100 people have now died.
"There are four dead and 23 injured, five of them seriously," army spokesman Acra Tiproch said. Two of the dead were children.
It is not known whether the victims were Buddhist or Muslim.
The blast, in the southern province of Songkhla which has avoided much of the daily violence, came less than a day after a string of seven small bombs in the provincial capital, Hat Yai, wounded 13 people.
Thai police yesterday also began scouring security camera footage to find out who was behind a string of seven bomb blasts that wounded 13 people Hat Yai, a southern tourist town overnight.
The small bombs hit hotels, shops and restaurants across Hat Yai.Police Lieutenant General Jetanakorn Napeephat, chief of police in lower southern Thailand, refused to speculate on whether the bombs, which went off late Sunday, were planted by separatist rebels.
"We have to investigate first ... we are starting by checking the CCTV (closed-circuit television) in town," said, adding the bombs were hidden in garbage bags and flower pots away from crowded areas.
The blasts occurred just days ahead of a crucial court decision affecting the future of Thailand's two main political parties.
Junta chief General Sonthi Boonyaratglin told Thai television shortly after the blasts that the attackers wanted to create a disturbance and urged people not to panic.
One person remains seriously hurt after the explosions, which came as Hat Yai, 933 kilometres south of the capital Bangkok, was struggling to recover after bombings that killed four people, including a foreign tourist, last year.
Those attacks were widely blamed on militants who are fighting for a separate state in the Muslim-majority region bordering Malaysia.
The separatist unrest has generally occurred in the provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat.
AFP, Reuters
"There are four dead and 23 injured, five of them seriously," army spokesman Acra Tiproch said. Two of the dead were children.
It is not known whether the victims were Buddhist or Muslim.
The blast, in the southern province of Songkhla which has avoided much of the daily violence, came less than a day after a string of seven small bombs in the provincial capital, Hat Yai, wounded 13 people.
Thai police yesterday also began scouring security camera footage to find out who was behind a string of seven bomb blasts that wounded 13 people Hat Yai, a southern tourist town overnight.
The small bombs hit hotels, shops and restaurants across Hat Yai.Police Lieutenant General Jetanakorn Napeephat, chief of police in lower southern Thailand, refused to speculate on whether the bombs, which went off late Sunday, were planted by separatist rebels.
"We have to investigate first ... we are starting by checking the CCTV (closed-circuit television) in town," said, adding the bombs were hidden in garbage bags and flower pots away from crowded areas.
The blasts occurred just days ahead of a crucial court decision affecting the future of Thailand's two main political parties.
Junta chief General Sonthi Boonyaratglin told Thai television shortly after the blasts that the attackers wanted to create a disturbance and urged people not to panic.
One person remains seriously hurt after the explosions, which came as Hat Yai, 933 kilometres south of the capital Bangkok, was struggling to recover after bombings that killed four people, including a foreign tourist, last year.
Those attacks were widely blamed on militants who are fighting for a separate state in the Muslim-majority region bordering Malaysia.
The separatist unrest has generally occurred in the provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat.
AFP, Reuters
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