Thai car blast kills 1, wounds dozens
A car bomb exploded in a nightlife district in Thailand's deep south, killing one and wounding more than 30, in a nation already on edge after a bombing spree that targeted tourist towns.
The latest blast struck late Tuesday outside a hotel in Pattani, one of three Muslim-majority southern provinces battered by a long-running and shadowy rebellion against the Buddhist-majority state.
"So far there is one killed and more than 30 injured," Major General Thanongsak Wangsupa, Pattani provincial police commander, told AFP yesterday. "The hotel building was considerably damaged."
Pictures showed fires burning on the road outside the hotel's shattered facade, with police picking through the rubble. Nearby a car was destroyed, with karaoke bars, massage parlours and restaurants also damaged.
Pattani is not popular with tourists, but analysts said the militants were sending a message after coordinated bomb and arson attacks struck multiple resort towns on August 11-12, leaving four dead and 37 injured including Europeans.
Those attacks heightened concerns Thailand's southern insurgency may have spread north after years of stalled peace talks -- a theory the country's junta has downplayed given the importance of tourism to the economy.
The southern rebels focus most of their attacks on security officers and symbols of the state, but they do occasionally strike nightlife venues.
Speaking to reporters after the Pattani hotel blast, Thailand's deputy junta leader Prawit Wongsuwan again dismissed any link between the tourist town attacks earlier this month and the southern insurgency.
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