One soldier was killed and seven others were injured from two bomb blasts in Thailand's restive south. -- PHOTO: AFP
NARATHIWAT (Thailand) - ONE soldier was killed and seven injured on Monday in two bombings in southern Thailand, the latest in a string of blasts in the insurgency-hit region, local police said.
The first roadside bomb hit a pick-up truck carrying eight solders in troubled Narathiwat province, causing minor damage to the vehicle, police said.
As the soldiers got out and tried to pursue militants hiding nearby, a second bomb exploded killing one of the troops. The other seven men were wounded, three of them seriously.
More than 3,400 people have been killed in attacks by shadowy insurgent groups operating in Thailand's Muslim-majority far south since Jan 2004, and successive governments have struggled to quell the unrest.
The three southern provinces were an ethnic Malay sultanate until largely Buddhist Thailand annexed the region in 1902, provoking decades of tensions.
Last week, two coordinated bombs injured 74 people in Yala province, one of the largest attacks against civilians in the near-five-year uprising. -- AFP
