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Two bomb blasts have wounded 21 people in Thailand's south, police
say.
Two local teams were playing a friendly soccer game on a school
field in Yala province when a bomb went off on Sunday, injuring 17
players and spectators, three of them seriously, police Colonel
Hanirut Himherb said. He said all the wounded were adults
and believed to be Muslim, although this could not be immediately
confirmed.
Muslim groups were suspected to be behind the attack, Himherb
said.
Soldiers wounded
In a separate attack on Sunday, a bomb exploded in Narathiwat
province, wounding four of 12 soldiers who were on a foot patrol,
police Lieutenant Kanchit Keenor said.
The incidents followed one of the bloodiest days in the more
than three-year-old uprising in which 2,200 people have died since
early 2004.
On Thursday, 19 people died in separate attacks, including a
roadside bomb which killed 11 paramilitary troops.
The bomb on the soccer field took place in the same district of
Yala province as Thursday's roadside bomb.
Hanirut said the bomb may have been triggered by a digital
watch, as mobile telephone signals have been cut since Thursday for
security reasons.
Mosque protest
Meanwhile, Muslim protesters in Pattani occupied the province's
central mosque for the fourth day on Sunday, demanding the
government withdraw soldiers from the region and lift a curfew and
a state of emergency in the region.
Thailand's current, military-backed government has sought
negotiations with the fighters and adopted a "hearts and minds"
approach to ending the violence, reversing the security-oriented
policy of Thaksin Shinawatra, the former prime minister .
But the response from the armed groups has been an intensified
campaign of violence.
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