Asia-Pacific

Two bombs in Thai south kill one, wound 26

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-06-13 11:22

YALA, Thailand - Two bombs exploded outside a row of crowded roadside restaurants in Thailand's restive south, killing one person and wounding 26, police said on Sunday.

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Assailants hurled two homemade explosives onto a pavement lined with open-air restaurants in Yala province late on Saturday, Colonel Piyawat Chalermsri said, blaming suspected Islamic insurgents.

No group took responsibility for the attack.

More than 4,000 people have been killed in six years of unrest blamed on separatist insurgents in the region bordering Malaysia.

The troubled rubber-rich provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat were part of a Muslim sultanate annexed a century ago by predominantly Buddhist Thailand. About 80 percent of the people in the region are Muslim and speak a Malay dialect.  The violence has ranged from drive-by shootings to bombings and beheadings. It often targets Buddhists and Muslims associated with the Thai state, such as police, soldiers, government officials and teachers.

The deployment of tens of thousands of police and troops empowered by tough security laws has done little to quell the violence, which no credible group has claimed responsibility for.