Bomb, Gun Attacks Kill Six In Thai South: Police

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Bomb, gun attacks kill six in Thai south: police

BANGKOK, November 3, 2011 (AFP) - Suspected Muslim insurgents killed six people in a bomb and gun attack in Thailand's deep south on Wednesday, police said, the latest in a string of blasts to rock the region in recent weeks.

A roadside device struck a pick-up truck carrying a group of seven villagers in Narathiwat province's Ra Ngae district and then unknown gunmen opened fire.

"A team of soldiers went to the area to rescue them but militants triggered a second explosion," injuring two troops, a police officer in Ra Ngae told AFP by telephone.

Thailand's southernmost provinces have been plagued by more than eight years of conflict that has claimed the lives of more than 4,800 people, both Muslims and Buddhists.

People in the region complain of a long history of discrimination against ethnic Malay Muslims by authorities in the Buddhist-majority nation, including alleged abuses by the armed forces.

Attacks have become more frequent and intense in recent months, observers say.

On October 25, 15 explosions blamed on suspected Muslim rebels ripped through a town in neighbouring Yala province, killing at least one civilian and wounding dozens more.

That attack coincided with the seventh anniversary of a protest in the region that left 85 anti-government demonstrators dead, most of whom suffocated or were crushed to death while being transported to a detention centre.

Rights groups have said the failure of Thai authorities to hold security forces to account over the deaths has fuelled further violence and alienation in the southern region bordering Malaysia.

On Sunday a dozen small explosions shook five districts of Narathiwat province but there were no serious injuries, hours after gunmen shot dead three Buddhists at a petrol station.

-- (c) Copyright AFP 2011-11-03

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Six die in deep south bomb mayhem

THE NATION

Bomb attacks in the deep South yesterday claimed six lives and left seven wounded, one critically.

In Narathiwat's Rangae district, a bomb exploded in the afternoon on a local road, splitting a pickup truck in two. A group of unknown men then walked towards six victims lying on the road and shot each one with an assault rifle. All of them were dead when police arrived at the scene.

Manop Boonteh was the only one to survive the shooting because the blast blew him out of the pickup and into a forest, but he was critically wounded.

The dead were Banharn Sangkaew, Preecha Jai-ong, Tiab Raksachum, Rut Sengseedaeng, Watin Sengseedaeng and former Border Patrol policeman Snr Sgt-Major Ekachai Mingkwan.

They were all hunters. Two boar carcasses were found at the scene.

While inspecting the scene, Naris Liwan, a volunteer ranger, stepped on a landmine and nearly severed his right ankle.

Earlier in the day, police in the same district defused one bomb and detected two fake bombs.

In Yala's Bannang Sata district, a device went off at 9.25am, wounding five police, one seriously.

All victims were taken to a local hospital but Pol Snr Sgt-Major Sansern Nama was airlifted to a better-equipped facility in Songkhla's Hat Yai district.

Two police vehicles were proceeding along Keulong-Taling Chan Road when the explosion hurled one of them off the road and wounded all five police on board, including Sansern, the driver.

The others were Pol Lieutenant Chid Sinsuk, Pol Snr Sgt-Major Yuttapong Chamborirak, Pol Corporal Suriyan Wichienpattarakul and Pol Corporal Assawin Pora.

Evidence suggests that the militants might have packed 5-10 kilograms of explosives inside a picnic cooking-gas cylinder for this attack, which left a 2-metre-wide, 80-centimetre-deep hole in the road.

Police believe the incident was related to the continuing unrest in the region.

An intelligence source said insurgents had been planning to carry out many bomb attacks in the district.

At about 11.45am, another bomb went off at a different spot in the district. Volunteer rangers were patrolling nearby but no one was hurt.

According to the Deep South Watch of Prince of Songkla University's Pattani Campus, 121 violent attacks took place in the three southernmost provinces last month, killing 46 people, of whom 27 were civilians, and wounding 110, including 77 civilians.

-- The Nation 2011-11-03

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^{In time of a national flood crisis, these people have no sympaty at all.}