Posted on 12/31/2006 4:03:58 AM PST by killjoy
Four explosives went off almost simultaneously in Bangkok, injuring at least 20 people as the city people have just started to celebrate the New Year's eve.
One person was dead at the Big C supermarket, Sapan Kwai branch, where witness saw a man dropped a grenade from a pedestrian bridge, police said.
At least 20 were injured at the Victory Monument when a powerful bomb went off near a bus station.
At the Klong Toei area near the Na Ranong intersection, a bomb hidden in a trash can near a Chinese spirit shrine exploded and injured two bypassers. The explosion caused a secondary explosion to a number of cookinggas cylinders that were situated nearby.
At the Season Square Shopping Mall, a loud explosion went off at the parking space, creating a panic but no injury.
Thailand has had an ongoing Islamist insurgent problem for years, in spite of its majority Buddhist population.
The Muslim General in question, Sonthi Boonyaratglin, opposed the hard-line tactics of former PM Shinawatra in favor of open negotiations with the terrorists. The coup was publicly praised by Islamist separatist leaders in the south.
Thailand is in the cross hairs of the global jihad. It may be that only 6% of the population is Muslim, but when you look at the widespread havoc created by that 6% in the southern region that they have taken over, you should shudder to think what Thailand will be when (not if) that 6% becomes 12%, and so on.
What's happening in Thailand is serious business. And today's bombings in Bangkok (the gateway to the Muslim south) are another symptom of the problem... and a sign of much bigger problems to come.
FWIW, TRT has denied any involvement.
General Sonthi came to power promising restraint and dialogue in dealing with the terrorists in the south. I'm not sure more bombings this soon would strengthen his position.
Moot point. They have been saying this since the coup. It is why there is still martial law in many areas of the country. This is in no way any link to the bombings.
The only reason I can see for blaming TRT on this one is they don't want a mass exodus of tourist dollars because of world headlines saying, "Muslims blow up BKK".
My counter to her is that the bombings could just as easily have been done by "agents provacateurs" among the anti-TRT (pro-coup) folks, in order that blame might be attributed to Thaksin.
Why? The 'anti-TRT' crowd doesn't need to place any blame on Toxin. He is out of power and so are his guys. It is a done deal. If you are a salesman, after you make a sale, stop selling. The sale has already been made and paid with cash.
Muslims.
Bingo. This is the only logical explanation, although I don't understand it. The MO of the attacks, low yield improvised devices, is 100% southern muslims. No doubt in my eyes. Either it was them or someone trying to make it look like it was them. Either way, they are going to get blamed.
Stepping back a bit, since Muslims are going to get blamed, how would that help TRT? It won't since it will just make the military more powerful. Another strike against the TRT conspiracy theory.
How will this help the current government? It won't. It will force them to crack down harder on Muslims in the south which is what the insurgency wants. Another strike against the Coup conspiracy theory.
So where does this leave us? Basically, the only ones with anything to gain in doing this are the guys in the south. They are taking a major gamble on this one. They have been stepping up attacks lately and I think this is their tet-offensive so to speak. They are either going to get a lot of converts to the cause from it or they are going to have the military come down with an iron fist on them, or both.
It is going to be interesting to see how this plays out. The military is going to go into full attack mode after this and it is not going to be pretty. This is going to effect tourism and that will not be tolerated. There have been plans in the past to attack BKK and Pattaya that didn't take place because they were too scared of the repercussions. Looks like they decided to take their chances.
I will know more tomorrow once people get their marching orders. It is going to be interesting.
Appreciate your analysis. Please keep us up to date as events unfold during the coming days. Stay safe & Sawadee Pi-Mai, Krup.
Sam reason the terrorists in the south were called "bandits" for all those years. Same reason the Thai Air bombing of March 2001 was rewritten as a center fuel tank explosion. There's a pattern here.
8 total
"The question was based on the statement that a Muslim coup had taken place. That is the furthest thing from the truth."
"The coup passed its 100-day anniversary on Dec 28.
The junta leader and army commander, Gen Sonthi Boonyaratkalin, is currently out of Thailand, on the Haj in Saudi Arabia, and will not return until Thursday."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1760636/posts
There was a military coup that deposed the Thai government. It was led by an Islamic general. Draw your own conclusions.
Urgent: Three more bombs explode at Central World, Pratunam, Khao Sarn Road
Three more bombs exploded in the heart of Bangkok once the new year started, severely injuring many foreign tourists.
The two bombs exploded nearly at the same time seconds after the new year started and another bomb exploded about half an hour after midnight.
The first bomb exploded at a public telephone booth at the pedestrian flyover linking Central World and Kesorn Plaza. Several foreigners were injured and rushed to hospitals.
The second bomb exploded at the Best Sea Foods restaurant on the Saen Saeb Canal near the Pratunam Pier.
Two foreigners and a Thai were injured. One of the foreigner had one leg amputated by the blast.
The third bomb exploded at the Buddy Bar on Khao Sarn Road.
Thank you for posting and keeping us up to date. Stay safe.
I wondered how long it would be before people started trying to put the blame on Muslims (despite the fact that they've never operated outside of the southern provinces) because there's no way it could have anything to do with the recent military coup.
Re: #84
I hadn't read this far before I threw my previous knee-jerk comment out there.
You've got a lot of good points, it will be interesting to see how it plays out.
Thanks! Good analysis.
My main problem with your take however is that you explain very persuasively why NONE of the three main "suspects" stand to gain from the bombings. Therefore, none of them should have been involved, if they're truly rational beings. So I'd say you bring us back to where we started -- not really having sufficient evidence so far to pin the deeds on a specific group.
Let's hope the FBI attaché is already on the case, cabling DC for assistance. With so many bombings (eight and counting), there ought to be A LOT of forensic data very soon. And a good FBI team obviously could help the Thai police to ID the perps.
But if the RTG doesn't want the FBI involved, then one might draw the conclusion that the pro-coup faction were involved. Only time will tell.
Well the insurgents, and I am calling them that because that is what the US military calls them, have a lot to gain depending on the reaction of the Thai government. If this pushes the Thai military into over-reacting then they will gain converts. If the troops in the south just start lashing out, it is going to hurt the governments position. You can not win a counter-insurgency through military force. It has never happened before and is not going to start now. I just hope they are not stupid enough to try.
Most of us are aware the Muslims are a minority in Thailand. Many of us are also aware that Muslims have a habit of using violence and threat of violence, even when they are a minority, to bend the majority to their will
A tightly organized 10% who are willing to fight, can dominate ten times their number if the larger group is not cohesively organized. During the time of Muslim expansion in their first few centuries, their favorite tactic was to exploit factionalism in their enemies, making promises to one group in exchange for being allowed to gobble up another group
In this context, I could see the Thai Muslims making alliance with Thai Communists to obstruct actions against Muslims, and maybe use Communist networks up north to facilitate terrorism
Both. And that's the point. Classic insurgency theory REQUIRES conflict in order to make the insurgency grow (as long as the conflict does not kill off the guerillas faster than new recruits come in).
Both the military and the insurgents grow in power (at the expense of any republic) if the right kind of conflict is promoted. And then the common Thais belatedly discover the same puppetmasters were pulling both sets of strings
Sounds like Thailand thirty years ago which is exactly what he is describing. Can't happen because for the most part the two groups are the same people. Been there, done that.
Public activities for tomorrow, January 1st, have been cancelled.
I didn't post it before but I heard earlier in the night that there were rumors of a total of 50 bombs that were going to be exploded around the city. Based off of initial reports, it looks like there have been about 20 accounted for. No idea if the 50 number is right or not but I got it from a good source.
Things still might be interesting in the next few days.
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