Police said suspected Muslim insurgents had placed a bomb under the pickup of Sgt-Major Ammat Hajiwani, 53, who drove the vehicle to work at the Sirindhorn camp in Yarang district.

The bomb exploded as Ammat entered a camp checkpoint. There were no injuries, police said.

However, army spokesman Colonel Akkara Thiproj said the device had been discovered and deliberately detonated.

The news media was kept out of the camp and was permitted to record the scene from an entrance only.

Militants often attach bombs to vehicles. A pickup exploded at the Yala city hall compound last year.

Elsewhere in the region, violence continued.

Early yesterday assistant village headman Abdulwaha Yakoh, 38, was found shot dead on a roadside in Sungai Padi district of Narathiwat. Police said Abdulwaha had been ambushed by at least two gunmen as he returned home from a checkpoint on the edge of the village. He had been shot four times. The killers escaped.

In Sri Sakorn district an unknown number of gunmen attacked Yuthana Srisuwan, 17, and Wuthipong Sakdarin, 29, while they were riding a motorcycle. The two were critically injured, Wuthipong being shot twice in the back.

Meanwhile, a roadside bomb injured three soldiers guarding teachers while they investigated a suspicious item left near an electricity pylon.

Police suspect the item was placed as a decoy to lure security officials. The bomb is believed to have been detonated by mobile telephone.

Sublieutenant Surat Montha, 35, Sergeant Somkiat Thongboon, 30, and Lance-Corporal Anupan Sae-Ngo, 34, were critically injured.

Police believed Muslim militants were behind both attacks.

More than 1,900 have died in three years of deep-South violence.

The Nation

Pattani