Counterterrorism Blog

Between 1-2 August, Thailand was again wracked by a spate of Muslim separatist violence.. 115 acts of violence including 70 bombs and arson attacks were reported across four provinces in the troubled south. 20 more bombs were defused. Most alarming to Thai authorities was that three !order patrol police were killed in Songkhla province, not one of the three Muslim dominated provinces of Pattani, Yala or Narathiwat that have experienced most of the violence in the past few years. The bomb, which was placed on a railway bridge, temporarily halted travel between Bangkok and Malaysia. Previous attacks in Songkhla and Hat Yai city, the main commercial and financial center of the south, including the international airport, have jarred the government. The death toll from the attacks was low, but Thai government security forces were caught flat footed. After the spate of 70 bombings in a 4-day period in June, Thai officials announced that they had intelligence of another major wave of attacks at the end of July. Many of the bombs were thrown into government offices, or homes of government officials.

The insurgents' intelligence and logistical capabilities to carry out such a large number of coordinated attacks at will in a region the size of Israel further undermines Caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin's Government's claim that the insurgency is under control. Earlier this week Caretaker Minister of the Interior conceded that despite government bans on unregistered prepaid phone cards, they were still being used to detonate bombs.

One bombing was particularly alarming. A Buddhist temple in Narathiwat was bombed, provoking fears of a wider sectarian conflict.