The explosions rocked a Carrefour supermarket and the airport terminal in the town of Hat Yai
Posted on 04/03/2005 1:31:05 PM PDT by TexKat
Two bombs have exploded almost simultaneously at an airport in Thailand's Muslim south.
The explosions rocked a Carrefour supermarket and the airport terminal itself in the town of Hat Yai.
More than 30 people were wounded according to witnesses and hospital officials.
"We have received more than 30 people from Carrefour and the airport, but we can't say how many were killed," an official at Hat Yai Hospital said.
The explosions rocked a Carrefour supermarket and the airport terminal in the town of Hat Yai
Double bomb blast in Thailand ping.
If the Thais get angry enough at the Muslims who are doing this, they'll be sorry they ever started it.
I suppose this goes on regularly without notice from the outside media, but the first story in the present wave of violence I remember reading was when a Muslim soccer team got together one evening and decided, Wouldn't Allah love it if they drove over to the next village and murdered everyone in sight? Especially women and children. It takes a special kind of religion to get people thinking this way.
Yes, no doubt, Christians have occasionally done such things. But Muslims have done it regularly for 1400 years, and Muhammed set them the first example.
Holy 'Religion of Peace', Batman!
No one claimed responsibility for the blasts, but it seemed likely they would be linked to the sectarian violence in Thailand's Muslim-dominated southernmost provinces, which has claimed almost 800 lives in the past 15 months.
Huge surprise, I know. Anyway, though, the article continues:
Concern that the militants may be escalating their offensive has heightened in the past two months with two other major bombings. On March 27, suspected Islamic rebels bombed a maintenance train in Narathiwat and then shot railway workers and police traveling inside, injuring at least 19 people in a well-coordinated attacks. In February, a large car bomb was used in an attack for the first time in a a border town in Narathiwat, killing five people. That bombing raised anew questions about whether the insurgents were getting outside assistance.
"Outside assistance"? I wonder who that could possibly be?
BANGKOK, Thailand - Bombs exploded Sunday at an airport, department store and hotel in a region of southern Thailand gripped by an Islamic insurgency, killing at least two people and injuring more than a dozen, officials and media reports said.
The explosions in Songkhla province's Hat Yai airport killed two people and injured at least 15, provincial Gov. Somporn Chaibongyang said.
Witnesses said the explosion occurred near the airport's check-in counters, and all departing flights were immediately canceled. However, an airport official later said departures were continuing.
Somporn told reporters that five other people were hurt by a bomb at the Carrefour department store in Hat Yai, the biggest city in Thailand's far south.
The Thai ITV television network said two people were killed at the store, which is part of a French-owned chain.
A third bomb was detonated in the city of Songkhla, on the coast of the Gulf of Thailand not far from Hat Yai, but the governor had no reports of casualties.
Police said that bomb was placed on a motorcycle in front of the Dream World Hotel and was detonated by remote control at about 8:30 p.m. — about the same time as the airport blast. There were no reports of casualties.
Gen. Chaiyasit Shinawatra, the Thai military supreme commander, confirmed the bombings and said security officials had been put on high alert.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Thailand's far south has been wracked by violence since January 2004, with many shootings and small bombings carried out by suspected Islamic separatists.
A TV grab shows a Thai citizen walking past damage from a bomb which exploded at Carrefour department store in Hat Yai in southern Thailand.(AFP/ITV)
A TV grab shows a Thai citizens at the scene of a bomb explosion outside Carrefour department store in Hat Yai in southern Thailand.(AFP/ITV)
Terror ping.
Bump
Carrefour is, or at least it was a few years ago, a French held company. I do not yet see white flags flying from the damaged building.
ROPMA
Can't we all just read the quran, and celebrate diversity?
I love the press. A dear friend of our fortunatly just left a teaching position in Hat Yai to take a similar one in Khan Kaen. She said the Buddhist community has been expecting a supper store hit for some time. It sounds like the small motorcycle bombs still but bombing at noodle shops and murdershooting from motorcycles are daily occurances. At least they cannot yet act outside of the South.
That is what I first thought also; Carrefour is a French company.
We see no white flags because the workers were instructed to hand the building over to the bombers graciously. :)
"Outside Assistance Is His Middle Name."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
