Muslim insurgents suspected as 14 die in Thailand attacks
Source: Agencies |
April 2, 2012, Monday
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SUSPECTED Muslim insurgents staged the most deadly coordinated attacks in years in Thailand's restive south, killing 14 people and injuring 340 with car bombs that targeted Saturday shoppers and a hotel used by foreign tourists.
A first batch of explosives planted inside a parked pickup truck ripped through an area of restaurants and shops in a busy area of Yala city, a main commercial hub of Thailand's restive southern provinces, said district police chief Colonel Kritsada Kaewchandee.
About 20 minutes later, as onlookers gathered, a second car bomb exploded, causing the majority of casualties. Eleven people were killed and 110 wounded by the blasts.
More than 5,000 people have been killed in Thailand's three southernmost provinces - Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala - since an Islamist insurgency flared in January 2004.
"This is the worst attack in the past few years," said Colonel Pramote Promin, deputy spokesman for a regional security agency. "They (chose) a bustling commercial area, so they wanted to harm people."
A blast also occurred on Saturday at a hotel in the city of Hat Yai, in the nearby province of Songkhla. The midday explosion at the 405-room Lee Gardens Plaza Hotel, where Malaysian and Singaporean tourists spend their weekends, killed three people and caused about 230 injuries, mostly smoke inhalation, said police Lieutenant Puwadon Wiriyawarangkun.
In Saturday's third incident, suspected Muslim militants detonated a motorcycle bomb 50 meters from a police station in Pattani province's Mae Lan district, wounding one police officer, according to police Colonel Tharet Kaewla-eiad.
A first batch of explosives planted inside a parked pickup truck ripped through an area of restaurants and shops in a busy area of Yala city, a main commercial hub of Thailand's restive southern provinces, said district police chief Colonel Kritsada Kaewchandee.
About 20 minutes later, as onlookers gathered, a second car bomb exploded, causing the majority of casualties. Eleven people were killed and 110 wounded by the blasts.
More than 5,000 people have been killed in Thailand's three southernmost provinces - Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala - since an Islamist insurgency flared in January 2004.
"This is the worst attack in the past few years," said Colonel Pramote Promin, deputy spokesman for a regional security agency. "They (chose) a bustling commercial area, so they wanted to harm people."
A blast also occurred on Saturday at a hotel in the city of Hat Yai, in the nearby province of Songkhla. The midday explosion at the 405-room Lee Gardens Plaza Hotel, where Malaysian and Singaporean tourists spend their weekends, killed three people and caused about 230 injuries, mostly smoke inhalation, said police Lieutenant Puwadon Wiriyawarangkun.
In Saturday's third incident, suspected Muslim militants detonated a motorcycle bomb 50 meters from a police station in Pattani province's Mae Lan district, wounding one police officer, according to police Colonel Tharet Kaewla-eiad.
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