Yala warned about truck, motorcycle bombs

The authorities believed two motorcycles and three pickup trucks had been transported to Yala to be used in attacks. 

One of the motorcycles is a black and red Honda Wave, while the other is a black, grey and white Yamaha Fino. One of the pickups is an Isuzu D-Max, and another is a Mitsubishi Triton. There was no information available about the third truck.

“All checkpoints will try to intercept these vehicles,” said the source, adding that authorities also had the vehicles’ licence plate numbers. 

Thousands of people have been killed in the decade-long wave of violence in the country’s southernmost provinces. 

On Sunday, several attacks occurred in the deep South, one of them involving an insurgent raid of the Joh I Rong Hospital in Narathiwat province. No one in the hospital was physically harmed, but the insurgents did use it as a base to attack a nearby military facility.

Security officials have since surrounded several locations and searched mountain areas in the province in the hunt for the attackers. 

“We have identified 10 suspects in the case already,” another source said yesterday. “We expect to arrest them soon.” 

According to the second source, the suspects are residents of Narathiwat province. 

Another security agency source said the hospital’s CCTV system recordings clearly showed the faces of attackers. 

“Officials have already compared the faces to a criminal-record database and can match one of them to a suspect wanted for allegedly attacking a military base to steal weapons,” the source said. 

The suspect has been identified as Tuanseh Tuankeuji, who allegedly played an important role in the weapons robbery. He has been charged with murder and attempted murder in connection with that crime.