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| Southeast Asia |
| Thai jihadis use new bombing strategy |
| 2007-04-20 |
| Muslim insurgents in Thailand's restive south have developed a new strategy for targeting authorities and civilians with bomb blasts, a technique that maimed its first victim earlier this week, the army spokesman said Friday. A high-ranking police official lost an arm and leg Wednesday after stepping on a bomb buried in the dirt as he inspected the site of an earlier bombing in Narathiwat province. Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont visited the officer in the hospital Friday, as part of a mission to boost morale among police stationed in Thailand's three Muslim-dominated southern provinces where an insurgency has killed more than 2,000 people. Until now, suspected insurgents have triggered the explosives by mobile phones, clocks or electrical wires but Wednesday's explosion used a different type of trigger that was activated when the officer stepped on it, said army spokesman Col. Akara Thiprot, the army spokesman. "The insurgents have developed a new tactic for triggering bombs to escape the authorities' control," Akara said, noting that the new technique allows insurgents to circumvent attempts by authorities to block mobile phone signals. Akara said that the authorities had defused two other similar devices in recent months. He said the military would begin using mine detectors when inspecting bomb sites in the future. In the latest violence, a 76-year-old Buddhist man was severely injured early Friday in a drive-by shooting in Narathiwat's Rue So district and a public school was burnt down in the same district. A bomb blast Thursday night in Yala's Muang district injured four paramilitary rangers |
| Posted by:ryuge |