More than 40 Bombs Explode in Thailand

Lots of small bombs, believed to be detonated by mobile phone(s), have been detonated in Thailand today.

Reuters
At least two people were killed and 16 wounded by a rash of small bombs in Thailand's rebellious Muslim south on Thursday, attacks the government said security forces knew were planned but failed to prevent.

At least 41 bombs exploded at police stations, checkpoints and government offices in the southernmost provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala, where more than 1,300 people have been killed in two years of separatist insurgency.

Officials said they expected more attacks.

"There will be more small bombs like what we had today as our intelligence reports say more than 200 small bombs were smuggled across the border into the region in the past four or five days," Narathiwat Governor Pracha Taerat told Reuters.

Security forces says they knew about the attacks, but was not able to stop them.
Interior Minister Kongsak Wantana says the bombs was made in a "neighbouring country in the south"

Vaak

Interesting!

out there is Asia must be the 'testing ground'

i recall that 'Bojinka' 1995, was the seed for the 2001 '9-11 attacks'

................

i also recall
that this latest, multiple bombing tactic, is kinda following
the model an ATS member posted about in 2002.
An operation called 'Sword & Crescent',
the idea is to set off multiple bombings 5-50 each
in 5 major cities, within minutes of one another...

wouldn't something like 250 bombings
scattered in 5 major eastcoast cities
in a span of 5-15 minutes be as spectacular
as the twin-towers and pentagon targets on 9-11??

This 41 bombs might just be the shakedown, practice run,
for just sort of an operation here in the USA.


thanks for the heads up

Lots of simultaneous bombs. It sounds like it could be Al Qaeda. Last year there were more than 300 simultaneous bomb blasts across Bangladesh. Same idea or copycats?


More Than 300 Simultaneous Bomb Blasts Across Bangladesh

Not strictly AQ-linked.

There's a separatist struggle going on to resurrect the old Muslim country Pattani that used to sit between Thailand and Malaysia. Been going on for years - long before AQ was created.

I think it should be viewed primarily in those terms rather than as part of a global AQ war

The region was part of the ancient Kingdom of Pattani, and was a semi-autonomous Malay region, before being annexed by Thailand in 1902. The indigenous people speak their own language, Jawi, a Malay dialect, and probably have more in common with their Malaysian neighbours than their Thai compatriots.

Armed separatist groups were active in the area from the 1960s, but when the national government implemented political and economic reforms in the 1980s popular support for the insurgency waned. Hundreds of separatist fighters accepted a broad amnesty and the movement looked to be quashed by the mid-90s.

A recent report by the ICG, "Southern Thailand: Insurgency, Not Jihad", concludes the unrest stems from a century of discrimination and assimilation policies by successive national governments in Bangkok

www.abc.net.au...

Just because it involves Muslims and bombs don't be fooled by slanted media it's not as a result of AQ involvment

[edit on 15-6-2006 by Strangerous]

i think this have gotta do something with 'Kra Isthmus Canal that would cut across the Kra Isthmus in southern Thailand and enable shipping to bypass the Strait of Malacca and head directly into the South China Sea (and vice versa)'.

if this project goes thru, imagine what will happen to the shipping ports in singapore which is regarded as the 2nd largest shipping facility in the world. so CIA in singapore decided to create some sort of a diversion? the instability in that region would've been the perfect remedy to scrap off the canal project...

www.2bangkok.com...

en.wikipedia.org...

[edit on 15-6-2006 by hingus]

Originally posted by hingus
i think this have gotta do something with 'Kra Isthmus Canal that would cut across the Kra Isthmus in southern Thailand and enable shipping to bypass the Strait of Malacca and head directly into the South China Sea (and vice versa)'.

if this project goes thru, imagine what will happen to the shipping ports in singapore which is regarded as the 2nd largest shipping facility in the world.

Thank you for that info, I did not know about that canal project.

Strangerous also brings up a good piece of history:

NOTE that today was the 28. anniversary of an announcement given by PULO - Pattani United Liberation Organization - that the southern provinces Pattani, Narathiwat, Yala, Songkhla and Satun would separate from Thailand. (1968)

PULU later fractured into several groups, and in 1997 Bersatu was formed with members from these groups. Bersatu was know to have the capasity to coordinate larger operations. Apparently Bersatu's prominent leaders were arrested or killed during the years prior to 2004.

Can this be the work of Bersatu. ?



[edit on 15/6/06 by Vaak]