Insurgents launch new attacks in South
Insurgents launched two separate attacks in Pattani and Yala yesterday, killing one person in each incident, and also planted bombs in three locations in Narathiwat province.
In response to this, the Cabinet agreed yesterday to put all three provinces under emergency law.
In Pattani, two men on a motorbike shot dead Wirat Bamrungwong, a mechanic, who was riding a motorcycle.
In Yala, Army paramilitary ranger Anan Awae was shot dead in his home in Muang district by two teenage men wearing Muslim caps. Police believe Ahmad Tue-nga and Yasa Damae, two insurgent leaders in the area, might have ordered this shooting.
Meanwhile, a home-made bomb exploded inside the office of a local administrative body in Narathiwat’s Rusoh district where some soldiers were resting. Everybody escaped uninjured. Another 5-kilogram bomb went off at a nearby office of another district agency, though no casualties were reported.
In the third incident, insurgents brought down several trees along a road leading to both locations, likely to keep security officials away.
The authorities later explained that the bomb attacks in both offices had been meant to destroy walls and make way for up to 50 insurgents to storm in. However, since the blasts were not powerful enough to bring down the walls, the waiting attackers had to settle for just lobbing grenades into the site.
These mistakes on the attackers’ side helped save the lives of up to 30 soldiers. A senior policeman said many attackers were part of the team that raided a military outpost on January 19, killing four soldiers and stealing 50 assault rifles.
