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| Southeast Asia |
| Blast in southern Thailand kills 4 |
| 2007-05-30 |
| A bomb exploded Monday in front of a busy market in the southern Thai province of Songkhla, killing four people -- including two children -- and wounding about 25, officials said. The bombing came a day after at least 13 people were hurt when six bombs exploded Sunday evening in the city of Hat Yai, southern Thailand's tourist and commercial hub in the same province. Those killed at Monday's bombing in Sabayoi district were two women and two girls, 4 and 8. The bomb, which exploded shortly after 4 p.m., was hidden in a motorcycle parked in front of the market next to a railway station. The motorcycle was destroyed by the blast, and a nearby car was damaged, as were dozens of stalls belonging to fruit and vegetable vendors. Provincial Gov. Sonthi Thechanon confirmed the initial casualty toll and said officials had been nervous in the wake of the explosion, fearing a second bomb may have been planted there, a common tactic of terrorists seeking to assault security personnel. Earlier Monday, a senior police official said domestic politics rather than Muslim insurgents may have been behind Sunday evening's bombs in Hat Yai that exploded near two hotels, two pharmacies, a department store and a restaurant. Scores of Malaysians, Singaporeans and Indonesians spend their weekends in Hat Yai, but police said all the injured were Thai nationals. Two of the wounded were reported in serious condition. Last September, six homemade bombs exploded in Hat Yai, killing four people, including the first Westerner to die in the separatist insurgency, though he was apparently not targeted. In April 2005, there was another spate of bombings in Hat Yai, including one that killed two people at the city's international airport. At the same time, a department store and a hotel in the province were also bombed, and more than 70 people in all were wounded. But the police chief of Songkhla province, Maj. Gen. Paithoon Phattanasophon, said politics may have been behind the most recent violence. "So far we cannot rule out that the attack was linked to insurgents in the three southern provinces, but it is mostly likely linked to a political motive," he said. "The way they planted the bombs shows the attackers did not mean to kill people but merely wanted to create confusion. The bombs were mostly planted far from where people were gathered in crowds," Paithoon said. |
| Posted by:ryuge |