Southern Violence : 12 wounded in Thai attacks
12 wounded in Thai attacks
Jan 13, 2010
YALA - SUSPECTED militants launched a series of bomb and shooting attacks in Thailand's troubled Muslim-majority south on Wednesday, wounding twelve people including three soldiers, police said.
More than 4,100 people have been killed since a separatist Islamic insurgency erupted in Jan 2004 in Thailand's southernmost provinces bordering Malaysia.
A bomb hidden in a motorcycle was detonated by mobile phone outside a tea shop in the main town of restive Pattani province early on Wednesday, wounding five villagers.
Another bomb exploded shortly afterwards at a food market in neighbouring Yala province, injuring four people including three soldiers.
Gunmen five minutes later targeted three male fruit vendors in drive-by shooting attacks nearby, wounding all of them.
The current insurgency erupted in Jan 2004 but tensions had bubbled under the surface in the south since predominantly Buddhist Thailand annexed the former Malay Muslim sultanate in 1902. The shadowy militants never publicly state their goals and target security forces, officials and civilians alike. -- AFP
straitstimes.com
