Eight hurt in freshmarket blast

throughout the security apparatus that more soft targets could now come under attack.

Authorities immediately cut off traffic routes leading to and from the fresh market for fear that a second bomb was about to go off. Such tactics have become common in the three southernmost provinces, where insurgency violence has claimed the lives of more than 3,400 people over the past five years.

Pol Colonel Poompetch Pipatpetpoom, deputy commander of Yala provincial police, said the bombing was in response to the authorities' crackdown on insurgent cells.

Police found pieces of a metal box at the crime scene along with traces of explosive materials and fragments of a mobile phone. This led them to believe the bomb was set off remotely by an insurgent with line of vision to the bomb.

The bomb was set off just as three security officers were within the immediate area.

The soldiers, all of whom are members of the Yala 11th Task Force, were sent to the provincial hospital for treatment. They were part of a 12man unit that had just completed a routine patrol in the back roads of the province.

The bomb attack came one day after Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat completed his visit to the region. A spate of violence had greeted the prime minister and Army chief General Anupong Paochinda.

Somchai told reporters the security situation had been improving and downplayed the need for structural reform for the Malayspeaking South.