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| Southeast Asia |
| 1 Dead, 14 Hurt as Coordinated Blasts Hit Thai South |
| 2014-04-07 |
| [AnNahar] One person was killed and 14 maimed Sunday in a series of apparently co-ordinated blasts -- including a boom-mobile -- in a major town in Thailand's insurgency-hit south, the army said. Four kabooms rocked Yala, a scenic provincial capital, on Sunday afternoon including a device hidden in a car which destroyed the vehicle and damaged several nearby buildings. Car bombs are rare in the Mohammedan-majority south, which has seen near-daily shootings and kabooms in a decade-long rebellion against Thai rule. The charred and mangled wreckage of the car remained in the street hours after the blast as plumes of thick smoke spiraled into the air, according to an Agence La Belle France Presse photographer. "There were four almost simultaneous kabooms in Yala town," army front man Colonel Promote Prom-in told AFP. "One of the devices was hidden in a car which was stolen a long time ago. The car had also been used for several robberies," he said. A second bomb hidden in a suitcase killed one person, he said, while two smaller devices hit a market and a bank. Yala is one of three Mohammedan-majority southern provinces afflicted by an insurgency which pits shadowy rebels, seeking a level of autonomy for the region, against Thai troops and police. Around 6,000 people have been killed in the festering conflict -- the majority of them civilians caught between the warring sides. Several rounds of peace talks last year had raised hopes of progress towards a peace settlement. But a six-month-old political crisis in Bangkok has seen the negotiations suspended. During the hiatus rebels have stepped up the violence, attacking "soft" non-military targets. Observers say the spike in violence is in response to Thailand's failure to respond to rebel demands to work towards a road map for peace. Last week three government officials -- two of them women -- were rubbed out in an ambush. One woman's body was then decapitated and left on the roadside. Many local ethnic Malay Mohammedans accuse Thai authorities of widespread human rights ...not to be confused with individual rights,mind you... abuses and a lack of respect for their religion, culture and language. Those grievances are seized upon by the Death Eaters as a reason for assassinations of representatives of the Thai state, including teachers, government officials and security forces. Rights groups accuse security forces of acting with impunity and inflaming the situation with heavy-handed tactics. But they have expressed hope the stalled grinding of the peace processor will be revived, especially as Thailand appears now to recognize the need for a political solution to the 10-year conflict. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |