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Southeast Asia
Dozens injured in bombings in southern Thailand
2007-12-31
Five bombs planted by suspected terrorist separatist rebels rocked Thailand's troubled south early Monday, injuring dozens of people in a town on the Malaysian border, police said. Explosives planted at entertainment venues across Sun Ngai Kolok town in Narathiwat province wounded 27 people, two of them seriously, police said.

"It was likely done by terrorists militants who target innocent people during new year," local police chief Colonel Prabphan Meemongkon told AFP. He said police managed to defuse one bomb at a hotel in the Muslim-majority region, where jihadis rebels are waging a bloody battle for a separate state, but five devices struck two other hotels nearby.

The first blasts hit at about 00:40 am Monday (1740 GMT Sunday), sending people fleeing into a hotel car park, where another bomb was hidden. A police officer in Narathiwat said that explosives had been packed into cigarette packets, which were planted inside a hotel disco. Another blast hit a hotel karaoke bar, he said.

Plus:

A 70-year-old villager was shot dead while clearing weeds in an orchard in Muang district on Saturday as police and military stepped up security in nearby Sungai Kolok ahead of New Year's Eve. The victim was identified as Yagoh Awae. His body was riddled with bullets.

Police said he rode a motorcycle alone from his house to work at the orchard, two kilometres away. While he was clearing weeds, a group of assailants opened fire, killing him. Police believe the ambush was the work of a local terrorist insurgent group.

Elsewhere in the same province, a security plan code-named ''Kolok Protection 51'' was introduced in preparation for any possible violence in Sungai Kolok during the New Year celebrations. A combined military and police force has been mobilised to ensure greater safety for all revellers.

Meanwhile, Abdul-ayee Samaeng, the deputy chairman of the Yala provincial administration organisation, said he was satisfied with arrangements made by Thai officials in Saudi Arabia to help Thai Muslims who went on the Haj to Mecca. The only problem was a shortage of medical professionals to attend the large number of ailing pilgrims, he said.
Posted by:ryuge

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