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| Southeast Asia |
| Militants planning large-scale attacks in Bangkok: security source |
| 2004-12-17 |
| BANGKOK : Islamic militants were planning large-scale attacks in Bangkok and southern Thai provinces in January to mark the first anniversary of a violent separatist insurgency, a security source said. The attacks would be staged in the five southernmost provinces of Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat, Songkhla and Satun, as well as the capital Bangkok in order to promote the struggle for an independent Muslim state in the south of the predominantly Buddhist kingdom, he said. "According to their plan the large-scale attacks, by means of remote control bombs in five provinces and Bangkok, would be prolonged and severe, as they have stockpiled lots of ammunition," the security source, assigned to work on southern violence, told AFP on condition of anonymity. "The reason why they have to stage attacks in Bangkok is to prevent the central government from sending additional troops to the south," he added. The attacks were expected after the new year to mark the first anniversary of a bold January 4 raid by masked assailants on a military base in Narathiwat, he said. The raid saw the assailants kill four soldiers and steal hundreds of assault rifles, while militants believed to be linked to the same movement torched about 20 state schools in the south on the same night. The event was widely seen as re-kindling a sporadic separatist insurgency that has rumbled for decades in the south, parts of which were an independent kingdom before being annexed by Thailand in 1902. Some 560 people have died in the violence this year. |
| Posted by:phil_b |