More Killings In Southern Thailand

[Mid]

would these be the same guys who have already shot innocent civilians out of fear ???

[Jai Dee]

PM reveals ISOC is working hard to suppress insurgents in restive South

Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont says the security officials have determined that the violence in the three southern border provinces is intensifying.

Gen. Surayud says the security units are responsible for solving violence in the deep South, and the government will support them in all areas. He says the officials who are operating in the region will decide whether absolute measures will be used against the insurgents, and the government will look oversee the big picture of the policy, with an aim to unite people in the country.

Meanwhile, the Royal Thai Army Commander-in-Chief and Council for National Security (CNS) Chairman, Gen. Sonthi Boonyaratglin, is scheduled to visit Saudi Arabia. The Prime Minister says he has instructed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Interior to recall the bilateral relationship. The government will strengthen bilateral ties with Saudi Arabia.

The appointment of Gen. Pallop Pinmanee (พัลลภ ปิ่นมณี) as the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) advisor is being considered by the ISOC Director-General.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 11 May 2007

[asd]

It looks like the bad guys are better trained than the military. These were special forces soldiers, yet they didn't seem prepared for this act, which was something I think they should have expected. I'm no miltary mind, but roadside bombs and booby traps are what to expect aren't they? There's got to be a plan of action in this case.

Sure... use helicopters. Or tanks.

I mean : even the US troops, with heavy technologies and support, suffer from such attacks (road side bombings) in Iraq. It's even the deadliest kind of attacks.

So, what can do the thai troopers ?

Insurgents killed seven soldiers in Narathiwat's Ra-ngae district after bombing their car. The force of the blast caused the soldier's vehicle to land more than 50 metres away.

The soldiers were on their way back from visiting a group of youths and were 300 metres away at the time.

They were part of a special psychological unit ( 2nd Special Force Regiment ), Special Warfare Command (SWCOM) in Lopburi province, 115 km north of Bangkok.

The violence in the South contains important psychological elements, reflecting attempts to instill and propagate fear.

Psychological Operations (PSYOPS) are techniques used by military to influence a target audience's emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and behavior.

A special psychological unit has been deployed to provide security in Narathiwat's Ra-ngae district and also conducted psychological operations in the village.

---------------------------------------------------

The device was an improvised explosive device powered by a 9 volt battery. The size was at least 20 kgs. It was detonated by the insurgents who were in the forest some 100 metres away.

The insurgents shot at point blank the soldiers who were injured by the explosion to ensure that all were dead.They then snatched the soldiers' M16 rifles and handguns.

An Army spokesman said 2 suspects were detained and were possession of AK-47s.

The bodies of the seven army officials who died from the bomb blast in Ra-Ngae district of Narathiwat province transported to the provinces of Nakhon Si Thammarat and Lop Buri to perform the religious ceremony. Two of the bodies will be sent to Nakhon Si Thammarat while the remaining five bodies transported to Lop Buri.

It is the soldier,

Who salutes the flag,

Who serves under the flag.

Thailand is a predominantly Buddhist country, but the southernmost provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat have Muslim majorities of Malay ethnic origin. More and more innocent people including policemen and soldiers became victims since unrest broke out in January 2004.

[Jai Dee]

PM will deliver one million baht to compensate injured police in far South

Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont will deliver one million baht of compensation to the family of Pol. Lt. Col. Wanna Boonchai, a deputy commander of the border patrol police force who was killed from the insurgent ambush in Yaha district of Yala province on February 1st, 2007. Pol. Lt. Col. Wanna is currently receiving medical treatments at Trang Hospital.

The Yala Governor, Mr. Thira Mintrasak, has donated 500,000 baht of financial assistance to each of the deceased border patrol police officers' families. Meanwhile, the families of Pol. Sgt. Songsak Tavilai and Pol. Sgt. Maj Taweechai Wongwichai will receive 500,000 baht of compensation each. The two police officers instantaneously was killed from the bomb incident in the southern region.

The financial will be given through the Commander of the Border Patrol Police 44, Pol.Col.Payuha Butsabong at Phaya Lithai Camp.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 12 May 2007

[Jessi]

PM will deliver one million baht to compensate injured police in far South

Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont will deliver one million baht of compensation to the family of Pol. Lt. Col. Wanna Boonchai, a deputy commander of the border patrol police force who was killed from the insurgent ambush in Yaha district of Yala province on February 1st, 2007. Pol. Lt. Col. Wanna is currently receiving medical treatments at Trang Hospital.

The Yala Governor, Mr. Thira Mintrasak, has donated 500,000 baht of financial assistance to each of the deceased border patrol police officers' families. Meanwhile, the families of Pol. Sgt. Songsak Tavilai and Pol. Sgt. Maj Taweechai Wongwichai will receive 500,000 baht of compensation each. The two police officers instantaneously was killed from the bomb incident in the southern region.

The financial will be given through the Commander of the Border Patrol Police 44, Pol.Col.Payuha Butsabong at Phaya Lithai Camp.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 12 May 2007

I think its about time the Military got the kid gloves off and start dealing with these murders the same way Thaksin did.

[sbk]

MCOT news

Three killed in Narathiwat: two police, one villager

NARATHIWAT, May 11 (TNA) – Two police officers were killed in a bomb and shooting attack and their bodies were burned by their attackers, while two civilians were shot by a gunman in the violence-plagued province of Narathiwat.

Six men attacked a police checkpoint in Narathiwat's Ra-ngae municipality, first tossing a bomb and then opening fire, killing two police officers manning the site.

The assailants poured gasoline on the dead officer's bodies and burned them after taking weapons from them.

They took the guns of the dead police officers, identified as Police Lance Corporal (Pol.L/C) Sathaporn Noochaeng and Pol.L/C Witthaya Khunthong.

Later Friday afternoon, two villagers were attacked in a drive-by shooting. Identified as Sa-aree Tayatee, a student at Yala Rajabhat University, and Mohammad Aso, a local resident, has just left Friday prayers at a local mosque.

The victims were shot on a road in Sungai Kolok municipality.

Mr. Sa-aree, the student, wounded and is now receiving treatment in a local hospital but Mr. Mohammad, hit by muttiple gunshots in his torso, was pronounced dead at hospital. (TNA)-E004

[Jai Dee]

Army, police, administrators confer on insurgency

Senior army, police and civil authorities operating in Thailand's four troubled southern provinces Monday met to discuss the insurgent violence prevailing in the region, with the intention of finding solutions through teamwork that has not been possible in the past.

Led by Fourth Army Region commander Lt. Gen. Viroch Buacharoon who also heads the Internal Security Operations Command, the joint meeting resulted in revised policies and operational measures that were later distributed to district officers, police chiefs and army task force unit heads operating in Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat as well as the four affected districts of Songkhla province.

The ongoing assignment will enable these chief officers to exchange views and work jointly on an ongoing basis as a team to end the bloodshed in the region.

Gen. Viroch told journalists later that the responsible officials could not ordinarily find enough time to exchange views on the problem which occurred daily in the South, and that Monday's talks would help create better understanding among them.

Some 2,100 people have been killed, chiefly in Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat provinces, since renewed violence broke out in January 2004.

Source: TNA - 14 May 2007

[Jai Dee]

4 culprits admit for the killings of 8 passengers in shuttle van in far South

The Prime Minister, Gen. Surayud Chulanont, says the army officials have arrested four culprits responsible for the killings of all eight passengers in a public van traveling from Betong district of Yala province to Hat Yai district of Songkhla province on March 14th, 2007.

Gen. Surayud says the officials have detained and investigated 24 suspected insurgents, and 14 of them will be released since they were not involved in the massacre. However, four out of ten others have already confessed that they were part of this atrocious act, and they will be prosecuted.

The Prime Minister says security in the deep South has been raised to a maximum level.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 15 May 2007

[Jai Dee]

Indonesians may have trained Thai militants - army

Militants from Indonesia may have trained southern Thai Muslims to decapitate or use other grisly tactics in their bloody separatist campaign, an Army spokesman said on Monday as another Buddhist man was shot and beheaded.

They also used video clips of beheadings in the Middle East available on the Internet as part of their training of Thai militants in jungle camps, Colonel Acra Tiproch said.

"You really need to know certain bones of the necks to behead someone and Thais don't really know how," Acra. "You need someone to be trained overseas or foreign trainers to teach them how."

The interrogation of captured insurgents suggested that foreign trainers, suspected to be Indonesian, were present in Thailand giving training through translators, he said.

More than 2,100 people have been killed in three years of separatist insurgency in the Malay-speaking far south annexed by Buddhist Thailand a century ago.

Apart from roadside bombs and drive-by shootings, militants sometimes behead their victims or set fire to their bodies after they are shot.

On Monday, militants used M-16 rifle to kill a Buddhist couple at a rubber plantation in Yala province and walked away with the husband's head, the 22nd decapitation over the past three years, police said.

A few hours earlier, militants killed a Muslim couple riding a motorcycle to a rubber plantation in another village in Yala province, police said.

Despite the violence and growing calls from the Buddhist majority elsewhere in Thailand for more drastic actions, Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont insisted on Saturday his government remained committed to a peaceful resolution of the conflict.

Source: Reuters - May 15 2007

[Jai Dee]

Videos from Middle East blamed for Thai beheadings

Jihad training videos from the Middle East captured in southern Thailand may be inspiring local Muslim insurgents to carry out beheadings, officials said yesterday.

About 30 people, both Buddhist and Muslim, have been beheaded since the revival of a separatist Muslim insurgency in early 2004 in Thailand's southernmost provinces.

The latest victim was a Buddhist man whose headless body was found in a rubber plantation yesterday alongside his wife, who was also killed but not decapitated, police Lieutenant Than Sirikhan said.

Thai Army spokesman Colonel Akara Thiprote said he believed the local insurgents were copying brutal terrorist tactics, including beheadings, that are portrayed on jihad, or holy war, training videos from the Middle East, probably Iraq.

Such videos were seized during a raid earlier this year on an insurgent training camp in a remote jungle area of Thanto district in Yala province bordering Malaysia, Akara told The Associated Press.

Akara said that some foreign trainers were also present in southern Thailand. He declined to identify their nationalities but said their accents and dress suggested they were from Indonesia.

The Thai military claims to have captured some foreign militants but has not revealed their names, nationalities or other details about them.

Thai military officers in the south have periodically claimed that a small number of foreigners were involved in the insurgency, which has taken the lives of more than 2,200 people. But they have yet to offer concrete evidence.

"The insurgent trainers are people from this region, but they are not Thai. Thais would never teach such cruel killing," Akara said.

The al-Qaeda-linked militant group Jemaah Islamiyah has been blamed for several terror plots and strikes in Southeast Asia in recent years, including the 2002 nightclub bombings that killed 202 people on Indonesia's Bali island.

Hundreds of militants have been arrested. But experts say Jemaah Islamiyah has several key members at large, and is still capable of waging attacks.

Source: AP - 15 May 2007

[Jai Dee]

Gen Sonthi informs facts of Thailand's southern violence to columnists

The Army Commander in Chief and Chairman of the Council for National Security (CNS), Gen Sonthi Boonyaratkrin (สนธิ บุญยรัตกลิน), has clarified security-related situations and the southern violence to executives of newspapers and columnists.

Gen. Sonthi has invited executives of newspapers and columnists to join a discussion with him. The purpose of the discussion is to provide accurate information, including Thailand’s southern unrest situation. He claims some details written in newspaper are not based on facts, causing misunderstanding among people.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 16 May 2007

[Mid]

any news on the actual clarification ?????????

or just the usual horn blowing minus any substance ......................

[Jai Dee]

Gunmen shoot community leaders in Yala

Gunmen using assault weaponry shot at community leaders in Yala province.

At 7:30 AM today (May 18), the Yaha (ยะหา) District Chief Officer of Yala province, Mr. Supanat Siranthawinate (ศุภนัฐ สิรัณทวิเนติ), received reports of a shooting incident in his district and immediately led authorities to the crime scene.

Officials found an overturned vehicle riddled with bullet holes, as well as two injured locals, one being a village headman, identified as Mr. Doroh Sengmasu (ดอเลาะ เซ็งมะซู ), and an assistant village headman, Mr. Ma-useng Sapaing (มะอุเซ็ง สะแปอิง). Both victims have been transported to the Yaha Hospital for treatment.

Investigations revealed that as the village headman and his assistant were traveling through the area, when no less than 20 gunmen using AK-47s and M-16s opened fire on the victims' vehicle, causing it to collide with an electricity pole. Mr. Doroh was able to use his firearm to return fire, causing the gunmen to flee.

Authorities believe the incident to be the work of insurgents attempting to create unrest.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 18 May 2007

[Neeranam]

Unbelievable - when will it all end?

I just read that the death count was 2208 since Jan 2004!

newstalkasia is doing a daily blood count

http://www.newstalkasia.com/index.php?id=239

[Mid]

Son killed, mother injured in drive-by shooting in Yala

May 20, 2007 : Last updated 11:25 am (Thai local time)

Yala - A 16-year-old son was killed and his mother severely injured while riding motorcycle to their orchard in this southern border province Sunday morning.

Muslim policeman, Buddhist man shot dead in Yala

May 20, 2007 : Last updated 09:34 pm (Thai local time)

Yala - Suspected militants shot dead two men, including a police officer.

Earlier in the day, a 33-year-old Buddhist man was gunned down in a rubber plantation.

Some 200 Muslims block road to demand suspects' release

May 20, 2007 : Last updated 09:31 pm (Thai local time)

Some 200 Muslim women and children Saturday blocked a road in Narathiwat's Rusoh district to demand the immediate return of two suspects held in connection with the daily violence.

Villages protest against Thai-Malaysian gas pipeline project

May 20, 2007 : Last updated 09:01 pm (Thai local time)

SONGKHLA - Protesters Saturday condemned those involved in the Thai-Malaysian gas pipeline project in Songkhla's Chana district for ignoring a request by the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) to temporarily suspend the laying of the pipeline from a gas separation plant to Chana power plant.

Edited May 20, 2007 by Mid

[Jai Dee]

Foreign Affairs Minister clarifies Southern problem to OIC members

The Minister of Foreign Affairs explained facts about Thailand’s Southern conflict to a meeting held by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

Director-General of the Department of Information Tharit Charungvat (ธฤต จรุงวัตน์) reports that Minister of Foreign Affairs Nitya Pibulsonggram (นิตย์ พิบูลย์สงคราม) had attended the meeting held by OIC during May 14th – 17th in Islamabad, Pakistan. Mr Tharit says the minister also explained Thailand’s policy and measures on the Southern insurgency and called for OIC’s members to support the Thai government.

The minister affirmed Thailand shares the same goal with OIC which is to fight against violence, injustice, and poverty by means of peace and reconciliation.

The director-general says OIC expressed satisfaction with Thailand and supports the government’s policy for the Deep South. OIC also praised Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont’s apology to Thai-Muslims in the Deep South for the government’s past mistakes. It expressed confidence that the government will be able to resolve the problem by using reconciliation means as well as local people’s participation and cooperation from the neighboring countries.

In addition, OIC affirmed it respects sovereignty of Thailand and agrees that the three Southern-most provinces are part of the country which cannot be divided. It also insisted that the Southern problem is not a religious conflict. OIC requested Thailand to treat insurgency suspects with transparency and fairness and supported the country's policy to provide amnesty to wrongdoers who have not been charged with criminal infringement.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 22 May 2007

[Mid]

Insurgents kill two Muslim teens

(BangkokPost.com) - Insurgents shot dead two Muslim teenagers in Yala's Muang district on Friday morning, police said.

[LaoPo]

The killings continue

Blast in southern Thailand kills 4

POSTED: 1208 GMT (2008 HKT), May 28, 2007

SABAYOI, Thailand (AP) -- A bomb exploded Monday in front of a busy market in the southern Thai province of Songkhla, killing four people -- including two children -- and wounding about 25, officials said.

The bombing came a day after at least 13 people were hurt when six bombs exploded Sunday evening in the city of Hat Yai, southern Thailand's tourist and commercial hub in the same province.

Those killed at Monday's bombing in Sabayoi district were two women and two girls, 4 and 8.

The bomb, which exploded shortly after 4 p.m., was hidden in a motorcycle parked in front of the market next to a railway station. The motorcycle was destroyed by the blast, and a nearby car was damaged, as were dozens of stalls belonging to fruit and vegetable vendors.

Story continues here:

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/...ailand.bomb.ap/

LaoPo

[Mid]

Insurgents blast two soldiers

(BangkokPost.com) - Insurgents detonated a roadside bomb in Yala early Thursday, wounding two soldiers on patrol critically, police said.

appoligies for quoting the post , nothing on the nations site ............................

[Mid]

3 special warfare soldiers injured in Narathiwat bomb attack

May 31, 2007 : Last updated 03:24 pm (Thai local time)

Narathiwat - Three special warfare soldiers were injured when their vehicle was ambushed by a bomb explosion in this southern border province at noon on Thursday.

The explosion occurred at 12:30 pm on Rusoh-Suan Phithan Road in Moo 1 Villlage of Tambon Rusoh in Rusoh district.

The three soldiers were travelling in a car with two other soldiers. They were returning from visiting Ban Baluka School, which is about 4 kilometres away from the explosion scene.

The Nation

[Mid]

Some 1,000 Muslim students, villagers rally to demand lifting of state of emergency

May 31, 2007 : Last updated 04:57 pm (Thai local time)

Pattani - Some 1,000 Muslim students and villagers staged a demonstration at the Central Mosque in this southern border province to demand the lifting of state of emergency.

The protesters said the state of emergency allowed the authorities to abuse the authority against the villagers.

The protesters also demanded the government to pull out paramilitary troopers from the province, saying the paramilitary troopers often killed innocent villagers

.

The Nation

[Mid]

Five detained in connection with latest Hat Yai bomb attacks

Thu, May 31, 2007 : Last updated 17:50 pm (Thai local time)

Hat Yai - Police arrested five young men from an apartment in Hat Yai on Thursday for questioning over the seven bombings last Sunday in Hat Yai that killed one and injured 12 others.

Deputy police chief Lt. General Adul Saengsingkoew, the officer who led the raid, said police discovered pieces of evidence that could be used for bomb making in the apartment in downtown Hat Yai.

The five suspects were taken to an army camp in Pattani under the Emergency Law that permits detention without trial for one month.

At least four of the detained are residents of Pattani's Sai Buri district.

The Nation

[Maejo Man]

Is there no end in sight? It would seem that the more soldiers that they send there, the worse it gets. Another sad day...

15 die in tit-for-tat South attacks

(Agencies)

Ten soldiers were killed late Thursday in a bomb attack and ambush by militants in the South, while five worshippers were shot dead inside a mosque.

An army pick-up truck carrying 10 soldiers was first hit by a roadside bomb and then ambushed by Islamic rebels in Yala province, said Colonel Akara Thip-piroj, an army spokesman.

"All 10 soldiers in the truck were killed," Akara told the AFP news agency.

Krisada Boonracs, the province's deputy governor, also said 10 soldiers had been killed.

Yala is one of three insurgency-torn southern Thai provinces, along with Narathiwat and Pattani, bordering Malaysia.

At least five young men were shot dead by gunmen in a separate incident in the restive south, the army spokesman said.

The men were killed while they were praying at a mosque in the Saba Yoi district of Songkhla province, which is near Yala.

"The victims were all men in their 20s. They were killed inside the mosque," Akara said, but did not give further details.

A bomb attack at a busy market in the Saba Yoi district on Monday killed four people, including two children, and wounded 23.

Thursday's deadly attacks capped a day of violence in Thailand's restive south, where two other people were shot dead and nine soldiers injured in bomb blasts earlier in the day.

More than 2,200 people have been killed in a separatist insurgency in the southern region since January 2004.

Thailand's military-installed government, which came to power after a coup in September 2006, has launched a series of peace-building measures but violence has only escalated.

Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani were once an autonomous sultanate, until the Muslim-majority region was annexed by mainly Buddhist Thailand a century ago.

Separatist unrest has erupted there periodically ever since and has begun spreading to nearby provinces.

The Thai military currently deploys some 30,000 troops in the three restive provinces and plans to send more soldiers in a bid to quell the ongoing violence.

Thursday's attacks came as thousands of protesters in the capital, Bangkok, demonstrated against Thailand's junta after a court barred ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his Thai Rak Thai party from contesting elections.

The court ruling has cast uncertainty over the country's political future.

Bangkok Post today

[Jai Dee]

Grim night in South

Ten soldiers were killed last night when a powerful roadside bomb exploded in Yala's Bannang Sata district shortly before 10pm.

In a separate incident in Songkhla just a few hours earlier, five people were killed when a unknown number of gunmen fired at people at an evening market in Saba Yoi district.

The remote-controlled bomb was set off as 10 Army rangers were travelling past in a pickup truck along a back road linking Yala and Betong.

They were returning to their camp from crowd-control duty at a protest by local residents, Army spokesman Colonel Acra Thiproch said.

Two soldiers who survived the explosion later died at Yala Hospital. A hunt is under way for the culprits as authorities have received a lead from former insurgents who have surrendered, according to the spokesman.

The frequency of roadside bombing targeting soldiers in the restive deep South has increased over the past month.

A roadside bomb in Narathiwat three weeks ago took the lives of seven soldiers on their way back from duty.

Source: The Nation - 1 June 2007

[Jai Dee]

11 killed in a brutal southern violence

Officials believed at least 10 insurgents were involved in the bomb blast that killed 11 field soldiers in the southern province of Yala last night (May 31).

Pol. Maj. Gen. Paitoon Chuchaiya, the Superintendent of Yala Provincial Police, together with police and army officials traveled to tambon Thanoh Buteh in Bannang Sata district of Yala province this morning at around 9 AM to inspect the crime scene. According to the inspection, the bomb was triggered last night, killing 11 field soldiers and injuring one officer.

The black pickup truck of the army was totally demolished, and many shells, bloodstains and pieces of bodies scattered around the area. The bomb caused a big hole and an electrical wire leading to a nearby forest was found.

Officials said the gunmen shot each soldier in the head. Some victims’ throats were brutally severed. The culprits also decapitated the soldiers and shot them again.

Officials also found traces of more than 10 culprits and believed they had been well-prepared in executing this plan. The gunmen were believed to steal a number of guns and pistols from the authority. Police assumed that the criminals wanted to create another unrest situation in the violence-plagued South.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 01 June 2007

[Jai Dee]

Officials closely observe situation in Sabayoi, Songkhla

Administrative officials and police forces are closely monitoring the situation in Sabayoi district of Songkhla province after a group of gunmen killed five people and injured two others last night (May 31). Officials are concerned that the insurgents will blame the authority for the killings and may gather the local villagers to protest against the authority.

At the moment, no movements have taken place while relatives of the five victims are doing a funeral ceremony for them.

The Royal Thai Army Spokesman, Col. Akara Thiparote, says there is no need to impose curfews at Sabayoi district for now even though the area is neighboring Yaha district of Yala province. He says the armed forces in Sabayoi are able to put the unrest situation under control.

However, he is worried that the insurgents may arouse the local villagers to cause social disorder. Therefore, officials are closely monitoring the situation and making a correct understanding with the local people.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 01 June 2007

[Stephen Cleary]

The Associated Press, Washington Post & Guardian Unlimited

Friday, June 1, 2007; 3:53 AM

Violence in Thailand Leaves 18 Dead

PATTANI, Thailand -- Suspected insurgents sprayed gunfire into a mosque, killing seven worshippers, and a roadside bomb killed 11 paramilitary troops almost simultaneously in some of the worst recent violence in southern Thailand, the army said Friday.

The bomb exploded Thursday on a road in Bannang Sata district in Yala province as government-hired paramilitary rangers drove by, killing 10 of them instantly, said Thai Army spokesman Col. Akara Thiprote. Another ranger died later at the hospital.

One ranger was slightly wounded and the truck was damaged, Akara said.

The rangers had earlier been negotiating with Muslim protesters in a nearby district, he said. The whole area has been under a military curfew since a deadly bombing at a mosque and a grenade attack on a tea shop that left 10 people dead and wounded more than 20 on March 14.

Almost immediately after the bombing, an unknown number of assailants opened fire on a group of Muslim villagers leaving a mosque after evening prayers in nearby Sabayoi district of Songkhla province, killing five villagers at the scene, Akara said. Two others died later at the hospital.

It was not immediately clear why the worshippers were attacked but officials blamed Muslim rebels.

"The insurgents opened fire on the Muslim villagers and put the blame on the authorities ... They want to create an impression that authorities cannot take care of the Muslim people in the area," Akara said. "Worse still, they want people to think the authorities did it to poison the relationship between the government and the local population."

Thailand is overwhelmingly Buddhist, but Muslims are a majority in the deep south, where they have long complained of discrimination.

Buddhists living and working in southern Thailand have been the targets of Muslim insurgents. However, Muslims _ mostly working for the government _ have increasingly fallen victim to the violence in recent months.

Thai military authorities have blamed such attacks on Muslims bent on intensifying hatred against the government and to radicalize Muslims and push them into joining the insurgency.

Some Muslims believe the security forces, or even Buddhist vigilantes, might have a hand in the attacks.

Since a Muslim rebellion flared in the three southernmost provinces in early 2004, near-daily bombings, drive-by shootings and other attacks have killed more than 2,200 people.

[Jai Dee]

Interior Minister says Yala bombing last night aimed at creating unrest

The Ministry of Interior says bombing last night (May, 31st) which killed 10 rangers is an attempt to stir up the violent situation in the Deep South.

Interior Minister Aree Wong-araya (อารีย์ วงศ์อารยะ) affirms that officials had done utmost to prevent attacks but the bombing took place anyway. The ministry will dispatch more officials to safeguard villages in the Southern-most provinces which lack security officials.

Mr Aree expresses his opinion that it is not right that the demonstrators, claiming to be college students, invaded a mosque and the Islamic committee headquarters in Pattani Province to expel military officers and demand the revocation of curfew. He says the demonstrators should not use religious places for political purposes.

The minister also suggests the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) to accelerate persuading people to side with the government.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 01 June 2007

[Mid]

Interior Minister says Yala bombing last night aimed at creating unrest

Lord , help us if it's aimed at creating peace .........................

absolutely useless statement for the minister .

[Jai Dee]

Insurgents derailed train in Pattani

A group of insurgents removed 20 pegs off a railway in the southern province of Pattani, causing a train to derail. At least five people were injured from the incident.

Police in Pattani received the report of the derailed train at 7 AM today (Jun 5). The train was traveling between Yala and Nakhon Si Thammarat train stations, but was detached from the railway between Na Pradu and Pattani (Khok Pho) train stations. Three containers and the train’s engine were derailed from the railway, causing at least five injuries.

At the moment, the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) is waiting for a vehicle to remove the derailed train from the railway. Meanwhile, the remaining passengers have been transported to nearby train stations.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 04 June 2007