[The Nation] Thai security officers have arrested the man who allegedly made a car bomb that was safely defused in a gas station in Yala province on Wednesday night. Abdullateh Riang reportedly confessed to constructing the bomb and also led the officers to another two bombs that he had prepared for future attacks. His arrest followed a 3 a.m. ranger-police operation in Narathiwat's Rusoh district. The arrest was for an incident on Wednesday when two men wearing facemasks and abayas, which are usually worn by women, drove a truck into a gas station in Raman at on Wednesday evening. The two men asked for a full tank of gas but then ran out of the station and fled on a motorcycle, causing staff to call police about their suspicion of a car bomb. A bomb squad found and defused a makeshift bomb in the truck's back seat.
A security source said authorities believed that militant leader Masukareunor Yakumor of the Runda Kumpulan Kecil insurgent group was behind the bomb attempt. Masukareunor is a weapons and explosives expert linked to several violent incidents, including an attack on a Narathiwat military outpost in January 2011. The attack resulted in the deaths of four soldiers and militants made off with 60 weapons.