Narathiwat bombing targeting Army convoy kills 2, injures 1
Two Army officers were killed and one injured in a bomb attack targeting the convoy of a deputy Army Region 4 commander in Narathiwat province.
At around 3pm on Friday, a bomb exploded on Baan Irkasae Road in Si Sakhon district, some 800 metres from a military base, just as a convoy comprising four vehicles of deputy commander Maj-General Paisal Nusang and his staffers were passing.
Paisal was visiting the base of the 4906th company in Si Sakhon district to investigate a March 2 incident, in which the base had been attacked by insurgents with guns and pipe bombs.
Meanwhile, the explosion on Friday sent the second vehicle in the convoy, an Army pick-up truck, flipping in the air several times before landing some 30 metres from the road, an officer said.
Two officers from the Army’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) unit were killed with their bodies trapped inside the vehicle. They were identified as Major Likhit Witthayaprapharat and Sgt-Major 1st Class Issara Lerknork.
Meanwhile, the third person in the vehicle, Sgt-Major Saksorn Sainam, was pulled out of the wreckage with some injuries and rushed to a nearby hospital.
The deputy commander who was in the third vehicle was not injured in the attack.
Lieutenant Saengphol Suwannarat, commander of the 4906th company, said the bomb had been wired to a 50-kilogram canister of LPG gas and buried about a metre below the ground. A fuse that activated the bomb was also found leading into a forested area some 100 metres from the roadside.
Saengphol said soldiers had been dispatched to hunt for the perpetrators of the attack, who he believes have fled to the mountain behind the camp. He is also coordinating with Army units nearby to canvass their areas for the suspects. Nobody had taken responsibility for the attack as of press time.
The bodies of the killed soldiers have been sent to Si Sakhon Hospital for autopsy.
