"About 20 minutes later, just as onlookers gathered at the blast site, a second car bomb exploded, causing the majority of casualties."
South Thailand Bombings Leave 14 Dead, 340 Injured
This is Islam.
From the Jakarta Globe April 1
Hat Yai, Thailand. Suspected Muslim insurgents staged the most deadly coordinated attacks in years in Thailand’s restive south, killing 14 people and injuring 340 on Saturday with car bombs that targeted shoppers and a high-rise hotel frequented by foreign tourists.
A first batch of explosives planted inside a parked pickup truck ripped through an area of restaurants and shops in a busy area of Yala city, a commercial hub of Thailand’s southern provinces, district police chief Col. Kritsada Kaewchandee said.
About 20 minutes later, just as onlookers gathered at the blast site, a second car bomb exploded, causing the majority of casualties. Eleven people were killed and 110 wounded.
More than 5,000 people have been killed in Thailand’s three southernmost provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala since an Islamist insurgency flared in January 2004.
“This is the worst attack in the past few years,” said Col. Pramote Promin, deputy spokesman of a regional security agency.
“The suspected insurgents were targeting people’s lives,” he said. They chose “a bustling commercial area, so they wanted to harm people.”
Most attacks are small bombings or drive-by shootings that target soldiers, police and symbols of authority, but suspected insurgents have also staged large attacks in commercial areas.
A blast also occurred on Saturday at a high-rise hotel in the city of Hat Yai, in the nearby province of Songkhla. Officials had initially attributed that blast to a gas leak, saying it was unrelated to the attacks blamed on insurgents. But after inspecting the hotel’s underground parking lot, authorities found a severely damaged sedan and a hole created by the explosion’s impact.
The midday explosion at the 405-room Lee Gardens Plaza Hotel, where many Malaysian and Singaporean tourists spend their weekends, killed three people and caused about 230 injuries, mostly from smoke inhalation, said a police officer, Lt. Puwadon Wiriyawarangkun.
A first batch of explosives planted inside a parked pickup truck ripped through an area of restaurants and shops in a busy area of Yala city, a commercial hub of Thailand’s southern provinces, district police chief Col. Kritsada Kaewchandee said.
About 20 minutes later, just as onlookers gathered at the blast site, a second car bomb exploded, causing the majority of casualties. Eleven people were killed and 110 wounded.
More than 5,000 people have been killed in Thailand’s three southernmost provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala since an Islamist insurgency flared in January 2004.
“This is the worst attack in the past few years,” said Col. Pramote Promin, deputy spokesman of a regional security agency.
“The suspected insurgents were targeting people’s lives,” he said. They chose “a bustling commercial area, so they wanted to harm people.”
Most attacks are small bombings or drive-by shootings that target soldiers, police and symbols of authority, but suspected insurgents have also staged large attacks in commercial areas.
A blast also occurred on Saturday at a high-rise hotel in the city of Hat Yai, in the nearby province of Songkhla. Officials had initially attributed that blast to a gas leak, saying it was unrelated to the attacks blamed on insurgents. But after inspecting the hotel’s underground parking lot, authorities found a severely damaged sedan and a hole created by the explosion’s impact.
The midday explosion at the 405-room Lee Gardens Plaza Hotel, where many Malaysian and Singaporean tourists spend their weekends, killed three people and caused about 230 injuries, mostly from smoke inhalation, said a police officer, Lt. Puwadon Wiriyawarangkun.
Read it all
No comments:
Post a Comment