Bloody night in South
Ten soldiers were killed last night when a powerful roadside bomb exploded in Yala's Bannang Sata district shortly before 10pm.
In a separate incident in Songkhla just a few hours earlier, five people were killed when a unknown number of gunmen fired at people at an evening market in Saba Yoi district.
The remote-controlled bomb was set off as 10 Army rangers were travelling past in a pickup truck along a back road linking Yala and Betong.
They were returning to their camp from crowd-control duty at a protest by local residents, Army spokesman Colonel Acra Thiproch said.
Two soldiers who survived the explosion later died at Yala Hospital. A hunt is under way for the culprits as authorities have received a lead from former insurgents who have surrendered, according to the spokesman.
The frequency of roadside bombing targeting soldiers in the restive deep South has increased over the past month.
A roadside bomb in Narathiwat three weeks ago took the lives of seven soldiers on their way back from duty. - The Nation
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