String of blasts rock southern Thai town: official

YALA, October 25, 2011 (AFP) - Suspected Muslim insurgents caused more than a dozen co-ordinated explosions Tuesday in a town in Thailand's troubled south, killing at least one civilian and two rebels, a local official said.

Fifteen blasts were heard across Yala, causing chaos according to the town's governor Krisada Boonrach.

He confirmed three deaths, including two rebels who were killed when what were thought to be homemade bombs exploded prematurely.

An AFP photographer at a local hospital said more than 50 wounded people, some in a serious condition, had arrived for medical treatment after the attacks, which caused a power blackout across the city.

The explosions are the latest in a series of increasingly brazen attacks by shadowy rebels in the Muslim-majority Thai south, which has been plagued by more than eight years of conflict claiming more than 4,800 lives.

On Sunday at least seven people were killed in back-to-back shooting and bomb attacks in a town in neighbouring Narathiwat province.

Late last month, more than a dozen suspected insurgents attacked a school in Narathiwat, killing four soldiers and seriously wounding one child.

The insurgents are not thought to be part of a global jihad movement but rather are rebelling against a long history of perceived discrimination against ethnic Malay Muslims by governments in the Buddhist-majority nation.

Deep South Watch, which closely monitors the conflict, said earlier this year that more than half of the victims are Muslims, many apparently targeted because they are seen as traitors for cooperating with the local authorities.

-- (c) Copyright AFP 2011-10-25

October 25.....Tak Bai anniversary, R.T.A. know it's coming every year.

Racist comment and reply deleted. Further postings will get a suspension.

Edited October 25, 201114 yr by cdnvic