|
Surge of violence in Thailand
20/10/2006 12:31 - (SA)
Bangkok - Two people were killed and 13 injured in a spate of shooting and bomb attacks across Thailand's Muslim-majority south, police said on Friday.
A bomb exploded early on Friday inside a crowded tea house in the southern province of Songkhla, along the insurgency-plagued border with Malaysia.
The explosion killed one man and wounded 11 others, including two people who lost their legs in the blast, police said.
The attack came amid a surge of violence in the nearly three-year conflict, despite a vow by Thailand's post-coup government to peacefully resolve the problem, a reversal of the heavy-handed strategy of ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
In nearby Narathiwat province, a Muslim woman was gunned down in a drive-by shooting by suspected Islamic militants late on Thursday. Two soldiers were also injured in another bomb attack in the province late on Thursday.
The region was an ethnic Malay sultanate until Buddhist Thailand annexed it a century ago. Separatist unrest has simmered ever since, although organised border crime is also thought to play a part in the violence.
More than 1 500 people have been killed since the latest insurgency erupted in January 2004.
Most of the victims have been civilians, often killed in seemingly random bomb attacks or drive-by shootings, which have become near daily occurrences in the region.
|
News
