Bomb Kills 2 Policemen In Thailand

[coolhandjoe]

<H2>Bomb Kills 2 Policemen in Thailand

</H2> 01 January 2011

Photo: AFP

Thai bomb squad members and soldiers inspect the site of a failed bomb attack blamed by police on separatist insurgents in the Sungaipadi distrist of Thailand's restive southern province of Narathiwat, 1 Jan 2011

Two bomb disposal policemen were killed in Thailand Saturday when a suspected explosive they were trying to defuse was detonated by a mobile phone.

Authorities said that at least eight people, including four other officers, were wounded in the blast at an open market in Thailand's violence-wracked southern province of Narathiwat.

Police said the owner of a vegetable stall alerted authorities about a suspicious motorcycle that two teenagers parked nearby. Police cleared most people from the area, but a bomb hidden in the motorcycle exploded as police tried to disarm it.

Officials said Islamic insurgents had threatened New Year's violence as part of a years-long campaign against Thai authorities.

Majority-Muslim southern Thailand has been the scene of persistent violence since early 2004, when Muslim militants raided a weapons depot and escaped with 300 rifles. More than 4,000 people have been killed since then, both Muslims and Buddhists.