Bomb, gunfight kill seven on teachers' security detail
Seven soldiers were killed and another injured following a powerful roadside bomb and a brief gunfight in Bannang Sata district yesterday.
The troops had been assigned to the area as a part of security details for teachers. Authorities said the soldiers had most probably been killed in the gunfight with insurgents following the bomb attack. The eighth soldier, who was injured in the explosion, managed to escape. Insurgents also took all seven M16s belonging to the dead soldiers as they retreated into a wooded area. Roads leading to the scene were blocked off with spikes laid out by insurgents to stall reinforcements or any immediate pursuit. A Black Hawk helicopter had to be dispatched to airlift the seven victims. The ambush was similar to the slaying of 12 soldiers on May 31, which was the single deadliest attack on security officials in the South. Army spokesman Colonel Akra Thiproch said the pattern of attacks suggested they were the work of the same cell that was behind the May 31 incident. The roadside bombs were followed by a brief but deadly gunfight, he said. In Narathiwat's Rusoh district, authorities discovered a man whose arms and legs had been chopped off and burnt in a remote cabin. Police identified him as Boun, who was in his 60s. His last name is not known. Yesterday's attacks followed a night of deadly violence, with three local Muslim leaders killed and a fourth injured in a shooting attack on their car on the outskirts of Pattani. The three were from Mai Kaen district, where one of them is a member of the local Tambon Administrative Organ-isation and two were kamnans. The same evening also saw a grenade attack on a teashop in Ban Manangsareng in Yala's Muang district, resulting in the injuries of six customers, one of them seriously. Eyewitnesses said they had seen a man in a pickup truck toss the grenade into the shop, frequented by local Muslims. The week also saw dozens of public schools subjected to arson attacks and three Muslim religious leaders killed in separate attacks. Local villagers organised mass protests and blamed the deaths on the Army and demanded authorities bring the culprits to justice.
The Nation YALA
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