Thai PM Holds Urgent Security Meeting After 51 Attacks Hit 3 Southern Provinces
Updated
Updated · The Associated Press · Aug 24
Thai PM Holds Urgent Security Meeting After 51 Attacks Hit 3 Southern Provinces
3 articles · Updated · The Associated Press · Aug 24
Summary
51 coordinated incidents across Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala prompted Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul to convene security chiefs before flying north to inspect flood-hit Nan province.
Three civilians were wounded and recovering, while the attacks largely used small bombs, arson and other property damage rather than direct clashes with police or soldiers.
A 7-Eleven in Pattani was set ablaze and a bomb damaged rail tracks in Narathiwat, suspending local and long-haul train services for an unspecified period.
No group claimed responsibility, but officials and analysts generally point to BRN, the main Malay Muslim insurgent group, which has held intermittent peace talks with Bangkok.
The unrest comes from a decades-old separatist conflict in Thailand's Muslim-majority south that Deep South Watch says has killed 7,837 people in 22 years.