Southern Insurgents Detonate Bomb Near Patrol in Narathiwat

Picture courtesy of Amarin

A roadside bomb targeting security forces was detonated in Joh I Rong district, Narathiwat province, late morning, as officials were returning from investigating arson attacks on CCTV cameras. Fortunately, no injuries or fatalities were reported, although a military vehicle sustained damage.

The attack occurred at around 11:00 on 13 July, as a team comprising senior police and military officials, including Pol. Col. Direk Chomyong, Deputy Commander of Narathiwat Provincial Police, and Col. Sittichai Bamrungket, Commander of the 48th Ranger Task Force, travelled to inspect the scene.

The patrol had just completed an investigation into two incidents in which unknown assailants had destroyed CCTV units in the area, when insurgents triggered an improvised explosive device (IED) buried under the road surface near Ban Kuerong village, Moo 3, in Tambon Chue Bot. The explosive, concealed in a 20kg gas cylinder and triggered by a battery-operated detonation system hidden in a nearby rubber plantation, caused a loud explosion as a paramilitary ranger vehicle passed near it.

An immediate security sweep was conducted, with bomb disposal units and sniffer dogs clearing the area. Investigators later discovered a one-metre-wide, half-metre-deep crater, with shrapnel and debris scattered across the road and roadside vegetation. The site is believed to have been carefully prepared in advance.

The original mission had been to inspect damage to security cameras following coordinated attacks the previous afternoon, at approximately 15:05 on 12 July. At the first site, attackers used motorcycle tyres soaked in fuel and suspended them from a pole to set fire to a camera mounted high on a utility pole. At a second site, roughly 1 kilometre away, a different CCTV unit was disabled by severing the wires connecting the camera to its control box.

Following the explosion, the inspection of the second CCTV site was abandoned for safety reasons. Evidence from both the bombing and camera sabotage scenes has been collected for forensic analysis.

Investigators believe the attacks were carried out by southern insurgent militants affiliated with ongoing separatist violence in the Deep South. The use of IEDs to ambush patrolling forces is a known tactic in the region, which continues to experience near-daily incidents of unrest.

Security has since been heightened in the area, with further patrols and surveillance being deployed in response to the incident.

  Adapted by Asean Now from Amarin 2025-07-14