Bombing wave continues in Thai south
Thai police officers inspect the bodies of six Thai Buddhist hunters, shot dead by suspected separatist Muslim militants following a roadside bomb blast in Thailand’s restive southern province of Narathiwat on November 2, 2011.
While floods in and around Bangkok steal headlines, an increasingly brazen and well-coordinated bombing campaign continues in Thailand's souther borderlands.
In recent weeks, suspected Islamic separatists have bombed a rough-and-tumble border down, Sungai Golok, and a regional business hub, Yala City. The latest attack — targeting Thai Buddhist boar hunters — has killed six and wounded seven, according to Bangkok's The Nation newspaper.
Last month was particularly violent month for Thailand's Islamic insurgency: 46 dead and 110 wounded, according to the monitoring group Deep South Watch.
Though the latest attack on hunters was less spectacular than the recent assault on Yala City — in which a string of 15 bombs killed one person and caused electrical blackouts — it was much more deadly.
The militants appear to have employed a common tactic: target a sizeable group (the hunters) with a remote bomb, fire on them from the roadside with assault rifles and trigger secondary bombs as troops show up to fire back.
Global Post's report on the insurgency's sophisticated bombers (with video) is here.
