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Published on September 16, 2007

Sergeant Sermsak Kanchanapetch, 47, died at the scene after the powerful blast flipped over a military pickup truck in Mayor district.

The other four soldiers in the pickup, which was patrolling Ban Tabing-Booketkong Road, were wounded, two of them seriously.

Lt-Colonel Prathan Talabthong, chief of a military unit in the southern border province, believes that the attack was the work of insurgents because Sermsak received a mysterious phone call on Friday night claiming that a bomb had been found and demanding Sermsak inspect it.

Sermsak declined to visit the site that night but went there the next morning and found nothing. On their way back, the bomb exploded, he said.

A police/military unit was set up to search for the bombers, and suspects were arrested several hours after the blast, he said.

Also in Pattani, two men were killed in a drive-by shooting by suspected militants.

The two attacks came as Prem Tinsulanonda, president of the Privy Council, and military-installed Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont travelled to the predominantly Muslim South, which is observing Ramadan, to chair the foundation-stone-laying ceremony of the Pondok Institute in Joh I Rong district of Narathiwat.

Prem and Surayud were accompanied by General Mongkol Ampornphisit, president of the Rak Muang Thai Foundation, and Interior Minister Aree Wongsearaya.