A soldier was killed and 19 others injured, one critically, in a roadside bomb blast in Yala's Krong Pinang district on Wednesday night, authorities said.
Injured soldiers are treated at Yala Hospital after their bus was hit in a roadside bomb attack on Highway 410 in Krong Pinang district, Yala, on Wednesday night. One soldier died and 19 were wounded in the blast. MALUDING DEETO
Pol Col Suchart Khlaichanpong, chief of Krong Pinang police station, said suspected militants detonated the bomb about 8.30pm on No.410 (Yala-Betong) Road at Ban Luemu in Krong Pinang district.
The blast tore through a military bus carrying soldiers returning from conscript selection duties in Bannang Sata district.
The improvised bomb was inside a gas cylinder buried on the edge of a durian plantation next to the highway near the 19th kilometre marker.
The explosion created a two-metre-wide and one-metre-deep crater.
According to authorities, the bomb was detonated using a command wire about 80 metres long. It exploded as the military bus carrying 26 soldiers passed by. The soldiers had just finished overseeing conscription in Bannang Sata district and were heading for Raman district to carry out conscription duties there.
At least 10 attackers sprayed the bus with bullets after the blast, sparking an exchange of gunfire lasting about 15 minutes. Twenty soldiers were injured in the ambush.
One injured soldier, 53-year-old Sgt Maj Boonliang Chaichana, died later in Yala Hospital.
Col Pramote Prom-in, spokesman of the southern outpost of the Internal Security Operations Command, said the attack did not affect conscription efforts in Yala because another unit was deployed to carry out the task in Raman district instead. He said the blast has prompted security forces to take extra precautions when transporting security personnel in the far South.
Security authorities are now hunting for both the insurgents who bombed the bus and those who abducted and killed marine private Ma-ila Tohlu in Narathiwat earlier this week.
At another conscription venue in Tanyongmas municipality of Rangae district in Narathiwat, an improvised bomb in a plastic pipe exploded about 3pm. No one was injured in the blast.
Elsewhere, Capt Somkiat Polprayoon, commander of a marine unit at the Chulabhorn Camp, said authorities had identified eight suspects believed to have abducted and killed Pvt Ma-ila in Rueso district on Monday night and are hunting for them.
According to a military source, all eight suspects came from Bacho district. They were targeting marines from the rifle company in Ban Yuelor village in Bacho to avenge 16 insurgents killed during an attack on the base in February.
Meanwhile, in Thung Yang Daeng district of Pattani, Hamu Salaemae, 59, head of Moo 4 village in tambon Talomaena, was shot dead in front of his house at 9pm on Wednesday. Thung Yang Daeng district chief, Bamnet Binrim, said the murder was the result of a local political conflict.
In Bangkok yesterday, Privy Council president Prem Tinsulanonda told a gathering of people involved in southern peace restoration efforts that the armed forces and police are working hard to restore peace in the far South.