Suspected insurgents detonated seven IEDs in Yee Ngor and Ra-ngae districts of Thailand’s southernmost province of Narathiwat Saturday night into Sunday morning, in what police describe as a tactic intended to cause unrest ahead of the holy month of the Ramadan. No one was injured, but some motorcycles were damaged.
According to Yee Ngor district police, the first explosion was reported at about 11pm in a rubbish bin in front of a motorcycle repair shop in Village 7 of Yee Ngor sub-district. Some bikes were slightly damaged.
The second explosion occurred at around midnight, in a garbage bin in front of the Livestock Development district office, about 800 metres from the scene of the first blast. The third occurred about two hours later, also in a garbage bin, in front of a phone repair shop in Village 7, followed by a fourth not far from the clock tower at about 4am and a fifth in roadside bushes in Village 2.
Police say that two suspects on a bike were captured on CCTV, with the pillion rider seen dismounting and placing something, believed to have been a home-made bomb, in the roadside bushes in Yee Ngor district.
In Ra-ngae district, officers rushed to a grocery shop in Tanyongmas sub-district, after a shopkeeper reported a suspicious object on a display shelf at about 11pm. The device detonated before the police arrived, causing some damage to the shop and goods, but no one was hurt.
Another device went off at about 1am in a garbage bin opposite the Office of Primary Education Region 3 in Tanyongmas sub-district.
