Seven small bombs wounded at least nine people in the southern Thai city of Hai Yai on Sunday in an attack resembling ones carried out by Muslim separatists, police said. Army-commander-in-chief General Sonthi Boonyaratglin declined to say immediately if separatists were responsible for the attacks, but said the bombs, all the size of soda cans, were aimed at causing chaos rather than major damage."The bombs weren't meant to destroy or sabotage, but just to wreak havoc," Sonthi, the leader of the bloodless coup which ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra last year, told TITV television.
One of the wounded was in serious condition after the bombs hit two department stores, two hotels, a restaurant, a Chinese shrine and a pharmacy in the city, the centre of the rubber trade in Thailand, the world's biggest producer, police said.