Blasts hit Narathiwat and Yala

Five soldiers were injured when a roadside bomb sent their truck flying through the air on Saturday in Narathiwat. They were among 13 people hurt on another violent day in the troubled South.

In another incident, several police officers in Narathiwat narrowly escaped injury when a bomb was detonated after they were lured to the scene to investigate gunshots in the area.

More bombings also took place in Yala, as security officials and civilians endured another stressful day in the troubled border provinces.
The attacks came a day after five military rangers were killed in a bomb explosion in Sai Buri district of Pattani on Friday.
In Yala, a bomb planted in a culvert near a car dealership in tambon Tha Sab of Muang district injured four police officers who were returning from investigating other explosions that had knocked out power. Three civilians were also hurt.

The explosion damaged two vehicles, one of them carrying Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) police officers.
The police officers exchanged fire with the attackers but all of them managed to flee the scene.
The officers found a gas cylinder and electrical wire that had been used to make the bomb.

Bomb squad officers inspect a vehicle after a roadside bomb attack by suspected militants in Narathiwat on Saturday. (AFP Photo)

One of the officers is in serious condition in hospital while the rest were slightly injured.
The four officers were identified as Pol Sen Sgt Maj Saravuth Daokrajai, Pol Sen Sgt Maj Chaiyuth Maneechan, Pol Sgt Charnwit Sirinont and Pol L/C Somkiat Toeykaew.
The EOD team had just returned from investigating three separate bomb explosions that damaged power poles and caused blackouts earlier Saturday morning in Yaha district.
Pol Lt Col Sayutee Kateh, the Yaha deputy chief, said the explosions took place around 5am at three points: the Yaha intersection, on the Yaha-Kabang road, and on the Yaha-Patae road.
Police and a bomb disposal unit found that a power pole at the Yaha intersection had been broken, five poles on the Yaha-Kabang road toppled, and another pole on the Yaha-Patae road damaged.
Police found parts of explosive materials scattered near the blast sites. They suspected the home-made bombs had been tied to the power poles and then detonated by mobile phones.
Thinakorn Binhayeearong, director of Yaha hospital said the whole district was blacked out by the explosion, including his hospital. However, there no impact on patients or hospital operations as it has a backup generator.
In Narathiwat, meanwhile, an explosion in Rueso district injured five soldiers near a military base in the district.
The bomb went off around 11.10am on the Tha Rua-Kotabaru Road, one kilometre from the military base in Muang municipality.
Police said attackers hiding in the trees by the roadside detonated the bomb as a military pickup truck passed the spot. The vehicle went up in the air and landed around 40 metres from the explosion site, where a large crater remained.
Police found a 25-kilogramme cooking gas cylinder, which had been connected by wires to a battery concealed 200 metres away in the forest.
The five injured officers were Pvt Soravit Onjunbok, Lt Chaiwat Kalong, Sgt Sunthorn Thengin, Pvt Wuthichai Thuengchumphon and Pvt Purin Fukthong.
Lt Chaiwat told the police that after the bomb he ordered his subordinates to duck and exchange fire with the attackers who then fled. The soldiers were assisted by local residents and taken to hospital.
Earlier in the day, police officers narrowly escaped serious injury in a roadside bomb explosion in Sungai Padi district.
Police said the attack was clearly well planned because it took place as officers arrived to investigate another incident.
The explosion occurred at 7.05am in front of Rong Panich, a construction materials store, on Jarusatian Road in tambon Paluru, said Pol Lt Col Jiradej Panpromthammarong of the Sungai Padi police station.
Police found a crater one metre deep and two metres wide caused by the explosion, and bomb materials scattered on the road.
Pol Maj Kittisan Herkkhunthod, an inspector at Sungai Padi station, said officers were responding to an earlier report that a gunman riding pillion on a motorcycle had fired on a security checkpoint with a handgun.
While police were inspecting the area, the 25kg home-made bomb placed under a tree about 50 metres from the checkpoint, was detonated. No one was hurt.
Police said the attack was well planned. One set of suspected insurgents targeted the police checkpoint, luring other officers to the scene, and a second group detonated the bomb by mobile phone aiming to kill police.
The incidents followed a raid the day before in which a suspected insurgent was killed in a shootout with officers.
Thirty police and military officers mounted a search of Poo Po village in tambon Samakki in Rueso district on Friday afternoon, after learning that members of the RKK separatist group might be there.
One man fled into a house and started firing and a gun battle ensued for about five minutes. The officers asked him to surrender but he did not respond so they charged the house and another exchange of gunfire took place.
Inside, officers found Arsifin Wataebuenae lying dead with many bullets in his body in the bathroom. He had been wanted under a warrant for an attack on a military base in Narathiwat on Jan 19, 2011.
Source: http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/351762/narathiwat-bomb-hurts-five-soldiers