Fear grips Yala after series of bomb and fire attacks

 Four warehouses in the city came under arson attack, damaging more than Bt100 million worth of property. The cost of other damage inflicted by a bomb attack in front of the Yala Rama Hotel, as well as the torching of auto showrooms and a pylon to relay mobile phone signals, has yet to be calculated.

  The first bomb exploded at around 4am in front of a hotel in the heart of Yala, shattering the windows and cars parked nearby. Two grenades were thrown at a cash machine and a billboard pole in front of a car showroom.

 Fire fighters took two hours to bring the fire at the warehouses under control.

 The attack came just before Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban, the government's security tsar, was scheduled to make a visit to the restive region.

 Suthep said earlier the situation had not improved the way the government had hoped, and planned to use the visit to draw up a better strategy.

 Army chief, General Anupong Paochinda, downplayed the attacks, calling them "normal occurrences".

 Police said the attackers used home-made explosives with shrapnel made of steel rods cut into pieces. They were set off electronically by remote control, possibly with mobile phones.

 In spite of high security in the area, militants were able to enter the heart of the city and retreat quickly before the security units could respond.

 In Bangkok, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva defended the government's overall policy but added that within two weeks a newer, more polished policy for the deep South would be announced.

 Similar attacks took place in February 2007 when a rubber warehouse was torched, sending dark smoke over neighbouring Songkhla province. The attack followed a series of coordinated assaults that killed eight people and wounded nearly 70 in a 24-hour period.

In July 2005, separatists on motorcycles set off a series of bombs and Molotov cocktails, hitting a newly opened cinema complex, a karaoke bar, shops and a warehouse. Spikes scattered on roads by fleeing insurgents slowed security forces in hot pursuit.

 The incident kicked off when powerful explosives brought down pylons outside an electricity substation early in the evening, crippling most of the telephone system and leaving the city in darkness throughout the night.

The then government of Thaksin Shinawatra pushed through a controversial emergency decree that still applies today.