This is the second very powerful roadside bomb which has gone off here on target recently. It represents a very dramatic escalation of violence and new and improved tactics on the part of the southern insurgents. This is a very complicated situation here and nobody at this time has all the answers. There have been many documented cases of uniformed Thai Military and Police murdering Thai Muslims in the south, recently in one case they attacked a boys school with grenades then denied it for days. It only recently was admitted publicly that it was the Rangers (Volunteer poorly trained Militiamen) who did indeed attack and murder the defenseless boys in the middle of the night as some kind of misguided revenge or show of power. Anyone that is interested in this should look into the history of "The Kingdom or Sultanate of Patanni" Which was basically the seat of International Power in the region at one time and then was divided into two pieces and is now part of both Thailand and Malaysia.
Last week there was some talk of the U.S. Army taking some kind of role in the fighting of the Southern insurgency here. I would hope that we had learned enough to not get bogged down in these kinds of things but I suspect some pencil pusher forgot to think things out. For one there has been no Muslim in Thailand who has attacked one single American for the sake of them being American. If our Army were to get involved it would most certainly change those tactics and put Americans down range for the first time in Thailand. I think its a very bad idea but then again I do not make policy, I just try to survive it.
CRISIS IN SOUTH
Seven killed in brutal attack
Special Forces troops hit by roadside bomb then shot in head; 2 suspects held
A powerful roadside bomb killed seven Special Forces soldiers in a brutal ambush in the deep South yesterday.
They were travelling in a heavily armed patrol in a military pickup on a back road in Narathiwat's Rangae district.
While most, if not all, of the soldiers were believed to have died from either the explosion or the ensuing crash, all were shot execution-style in the head at point-blank range by the attackers, who also made off with their M16 rifles.
The bodies of five soldiers were scattered at the scene, including one that lay about 15 metres from the roadside. Two bodies lay motionless inside the cab of the truck, which had skidded about 40 metres from the spot where the bomb was detonated by an electrical wire that extended about 30 metres into a wooded area.
The explosive material was estimated to be about 8 kilograms in weight, said a forensic policeman at the scene. "It appeared that the bomb was assembled extremely well," the officer said.
The bomb left a crater about 2 metres wide and a metre deep in the road, which was scattered with pieces of the vehicle.
Nearly 100 soldiers and police arrived at the scene to investigate the incident, while security units put up roadblocks and checkpoints as the hunt for the attackers was launched.
Officials nabbed two suspects nearby and detained them for questioning in a military camp in Rangae, said Army spokesman Akara Thiproj. The identities of the two have yet to be disclosed.
An official said the attackers appeared to have been alerted by an accomplice that the military truck was approaching the site where the bomb was buried. They then littered the road with spikes.
Mobile-phone signals were immediately shut off at the scene for fear militants would detonate a second bomb, as they have done in the past.
The victims were Major Veeraphon Yam-amphon, Sergeant Rachan Reunkosun, Sergeant Veerachon Srikert, Sergeant Somkiart Jongkit, Private Narin Klersom, Private Sombhat Phachan and Private Somsak Faithasaeng.
All were member of the Special Forces' Psychological Operations Unit, which has mainly carried out the Army's public-relations campaign aimed at winning hearts and minds in the Malay-speaking region, where more than 2,100 have died since January 4, 2004.
The explosion occurred near a hilltop where five militants were killed in a gunfight with security forces on March 2.
A public apology by Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont for authorities' heavy-handedness and questionable policies of the past has done little to calm the situation in the restive region as militants step up their attacks. The PM is due to take a group of ministers to assess the situation in the South this weekend.
Don Pathan
The Nation
Ban Bor-ngor, Narathiwat
Author
Topic: Violence Escalates In Thailand (Read 244 times)