Yuthasak says lapse to blame for death of soldiers
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Bomb attack that killed four might force 'extension of emergency'
Four soldiers were killed and another severely wounded when their vehicle was blown up by a bomb blamed on insurgents while they were returning after providing security for a Makha Bucha observance in Narathiwat.
The unit was travelling on a road beside the railway in Yaba village in Rusoh district’s Tambon Rusoh when the homemade device was detonated at 10.40pm by remote control.
Police found a wire more than 100 metres long at the scene.
The vehicle carrying the five soldiers was blown to bits, with pieces found scattered four metres away, while the blast created a crater one metre deep and three metres wide in the road.
Police said the unit was returning to its base in two vehicles after being deployed at Rat Samosorn Temple, where Buddhists were performing the wian tian candlelit ceremony to mark Makha Bucha Day on Wednesday evening.
Deputy Prime Minister Yuthasak Sasiprapa said the emergency decree in the South might have to be extended in light of the deadly explosion.
A military lapse was partly to blame, he said.
“Soldiers on patrol should adjust their routes and schedule quite often to avoid being targeted by militants in risky areas such as bridges and intersections,” he said.
Narathiwat police said the attack was likely the work of an active insurgent leader identified as Rohpaein Useng, who was possibly behind a grenade attack on a tea shop on March 1, which wounded 10 people.
In Yala, police shot dead a suspected insurgent during a raid on a village in Muang district on Wednesday afternoon. The dead insurgent was a 17yearold boy. Five other men fled after a brief gunfight.
The sixman group is part of a cell led by Abiding Padi, a man wanted for several attacks including an ambush on a vehicle of a junior policeman which killed his wife and a young child, and an M79 attack on the Lam Mai Police Station in Yala.
LtGeneral Udomchai Thammasarojrat, commandergeneral of the Fourth Army Area, expressed grief over the death of the four victims and vowed to arrest the killers. The frequent attacks were in response to proactive operations by the military to win over the local communities, he said.
Yuthasak said Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who is on an official visit to Japan, had called him to ask him to take good care of the families of those four killed.
“A full military funeral is being prepared for them before all welfare conditions follow,” he added.
