A key suspect in the bombing of the Lee Gardens Plaza Hotel in Songkhla's Hat Yai district last year has allegedly confessed to carrying out the attack which left three people dead and more than 350 injured.
Jaema Wani, 36, admitted yesterday that he and two other men drove a car carrying bombs and parked it in the basement of the hotel on March 31 last year, a security source said.
The confession came after days of intense interrogation following his Feb 5 arrest.
The source said Mr Jaema told interrogators he had stopped to pray at a mosque before heading to the hotel to bomb it.
Suspects Seree Waemamu and Ruslan Baima, wanted by police in connection with the bomb attack, drove the car from Pattani's Nong Chick district and picked him up in Songkhla's Chana district, Mr Jaema was quoted as saying.
The group took the Songkhla-Chana Road, a seaside route, to get into Hat Yai's city centre.
They stopped at a mosque in Hat Yai to pray before travelling on to their destination. Mr Seree and Mr Ruslan took the car into the hotel's basement while he waited outside the hotel, according to Mr Jaema's account.
After leaving the bomb-laden vehicle at the hotel, the three left in a pickup driven by an accomplice before fleeing to Pattani's Nong Chik district.
Meanwhile, a combined force of police and military rangers yesterday raided a house in Ban Lubo Jawae in tambon Khlong Mai of Pattani's Yarang district and detained Uzeng Toyo, 33.
Police believe the suspect was also involved in the car bomb attack at the hotel. But it remained unclear whether he was the fourth suspect who picked up Mr Jawae, Mr Seree, and Mr Ruslan after planting the bombs at the hotel.
Mr Uzeng was wanted on 10 warrants in connection with several major bombing attacks in Hat Yai and an attack at a military base in which one ranger was killed in 2011.