Thirteen people, including ten security officers, were injured in a wave of bombings that struck Yala and Narathiwat provinces yesterday. The attacks happened a day after five military rangers were killed in a bomb attack in Pattani's Sai Buri district.In Yala, a bomb went off about 10:50 a.m in Muang district when a van carrying officers from the Southern Border Provinces Police Operation Center and a pickup truck carrying a police bomb disposal team traveled along Highway 409. The blast blew the van into a ditch, amd the pickup truck was damaged.
Moments later, a number of assailants opened fire at the officers and a brief gunfight ensued. The attackers fled. Nobody was wounded. The blast injured five of the eight bomb disposal officers and three civilians in the area.
A bomb disposal unit had earlier been called to inspect coordinated bombings in Yaha and Kabang districts. Bombs went off yesterday morning at three locations in Yaha municipal area. Five high-voltage power poles collapsed, causing power blackouts in many areas.
In nearby Kabang district, explosions occurred at three locations. An ATM was damaged and two high-voltage power poles collapsed. This caused power blackouts in the district and areas near a neighboring district.
Pol Col Thawatchai Duksukkaew, chief of Kabang police, said the bombs, which went off simultaneously at 5:15am yesterday, were meant to cause chaos in Yala during the annual celebrations at the city pillar shrine and the provincial Red Cross fair, which started yesterday.
Meanwhile, five soldiers were injured, one seriously, in a roadside bomb attack in Narathiwat province. The blast occured about 11:10 a.m. in Rueso district when a military truck carrying the five soldiers passed by just one kilometer from the officers' outpost.
In Sungai Padi district of Narathiwat, a police team narrowly escaped injury in a bomb attack yesterday. Police had been called in to inspect a gun attack at a police checkpoint. While officers were inspecting the scene, a bomb went off. No one was wounded.