Armed assailants fatally shot an army officer Friday, just hours after unidentified attackers set fire to about 50 public buildings in the worst day of arson attacks in Thailand's Muslim-dominated south in recent months. Sgt. Sarathon Kadie, 45, died after a gunman on a motorcycle rode up and opened fire as the officer was washing his car around 6:30 a.m. (2330 GMT) Friday morning in the Rayang district of Pattani province, said police Capt. Vipat Suwanarat.
| Motorcycles of Doom strike again! |
The attack came just hours after unidentified attackers torched about 50 public buildings in almost simultaneous attacks late Thursday and killed two firefighters rushing to put out one of the blazes.
| 50 fires at once? That's a pretty large torch job. |
The unrest signaled the worst day of arson attacks since Jan. 4, when assailants burned 21 schools in Narathiwat province and raided an army camp, stealing hundreds of weapons and killing four soldiers. Since then, more than 70 people, mostly police and local officials, have been killed in drive-by shootings and other attacks that the government has blamed on alleged Islamic insurgents. Thursday's fires broke out in all 13 districts of Narathiwat, with the attackers targeting at least 11 schools, 24 phone booths, government offices, living accommodations for railway officials, a highway rest area and some Buddhist monasteries, police said earlier.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said Friday that at least 10 suspects had been arrested following the attacks, which amounted to a "last-minute struggle'' by followers of an Islamic militant who would soon be caught.
| Suspects caught, huh? Need to borrow some truncheons? |
Police said late Thursday that a combined force of police and soldiers had rounded up about 20 suspects. Thaksin, on a tour of Thailand's northeastern provinces, told reporters that the arrest of the suspects, who range from 14 to 20 years old, marked "the first time that security forces have been able to arrest arsonists red-handed.''
| 14 to 20, this would be the easily replaced cannon fodder. |
He said the arrests showed that "local people are now lending a hand to the authorities.'' "This was the last-minute struggle of the perpetrators as the government is on the right track and is about to get the real mastermind'' behind the recent violence, who has been "instigating youths to create trouble and has been using religion as a tool to cause trouble.''
| And which religion would that be, hummm? |
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