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Published on August 2, 2007

At least four people including two soldiers and one police officer were killed and more than a dozen were wounded in explosions and gun attacks throughout the South yesterday. Authorities said the attacks were in response to ongoing arrests of suspected insurgents.

One of the serious cases took place in Songkhla's Nathawee district as a bomb went off at a police outpost in front of a market at about 6pm that was crowded with traders. A police officer was killed instantly and five others wounded, including another police officer in serious condition.

Six bombs went off in six locations in four districts of southernmost Narathiwat province between 7am-9am, police said.

The most powerful blast was in Bacho district when a 5-kilogram roadside bomb went off as a group of eight soldiers was on patrol. Two were wounded.

Another blast near a branch of Krung Thai Bank in Rangae's Tanyongmat subdistrict left one person dead and eight others wounded.

Other bombs went off in Muang and Sungai Kolok districts but nobody was hurt.

Officials managed to defuse a bomb in front of Kasikornbank's Narathiwat branch at 8.45am, just before it opened for business.

In neighbouring Yala, an ambush in Raman district killed two soldiers and wounded two others at about 6am. The unit was on patrol, guarding railway facilities.

An unknown number of men opened fire on the soldiers as they were riding their motorbikes toward the district's Ban Baloh railway station.

The militants stole the soldiers' three M-16 assault rifles and 11mm pistols as they retreated from the scene, said Raman police chief Col Wisit Aksornkaew.

In Pattani's Yarang district, a roadside bomb slightly wounded an Army corporal as he joined five others on patrol at about 9.30am. Half an hour earlier, another roadside bomb went off in another subdistrict while six soldiers were on patrol. The bomb was followed by a brief gun battle between the six soldiers and militants but there were no casualties in either the explosion or the exchange of fire.

Colonel Shinawat Mandej, the Yala taskforce commander, said the attacks were a reaction to the authorities' massive security sweep.

"They want to show that they still have the potential to attack us, but we know they are not in a good position to handle the situation since our campaign began," the commander said.

The colonel said the operation that has brought hundreds of suspects into detention over the past month has heavily shaken the militants. The authorities' move was a major achievement in containing the violence that has raged for three years, he said.

However, local residents did not agree with the official's claim. Siraporn Chutikarn, assistant manager of Kasikornbank's Narathiwat branch, said local people believed the violence would continue.

"The authorities try to say the situation is improving but we believe the violence will go on. We don't know who will be the next victim, or when," she said.

In Yala's Bannang Sata district, combined police and military forces killed at least five militants during a raid on a village, the district chief said.

The insurgents opened fire on the government's armed troops while they were searching Ban Kasod at about 4.30pm, said district chief Methe Kanchanapuwa. The five dead subversives could not be immediately identified, he said.