Deep South insurgents target Yala kindergarten

August 01, 2013
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YALA, Thailand – Two security officers were badly wounded Wednesday (July 31st) after suspected insurgents detonated an improvised explosive device on the campus of a kindergarten and primary school in Bannang Sata district, Yala.

  • Kindergarten and primary students at Ban Taopoon School look on after suspected insurgents detonated an improvised explosive device (IED) on the campus in Yala's Bannang Sata district Wednesday (July 31st). Two security officers were injured in the attack. [Ahmad Ramansiriwong/Khabar]

    Kindergarten and primary students at Ban Taopoon School look on after suspected insurgents detonated an improvised explosive device (IED) on the campus in Yala's Bannang Sata district Wednesday (July 31st). Two security officers were injured in the attack. [Ahmad Ramansiriwong/Khabar]

The injured volunteers, Pitak Prommate and Jakkri Potiban, were part of an eight-man security team assigned to protect teachers and staff at the Ban Taopoon School.

The victims were at a shaded concrete table in the front of the campus, 50m from the school's prayer room and kindergarten, when the device exploded beneath them, terrifying students and staff.

Evidence recovered at the scene suggested the bombers were able to bury the 5kg device in the ground under paving bricks. They then detonated the device remotely.

The bombing was one of at least four attacks in Yala that injured a total of five people.

In one of the attacks, also in Bannang Sata, a village security guard was shot and critically injured in an ambush as he and his wife walked along a rural road to tap rubber at their plantation. Gunmen hiding in a roadside forest opened fire, hitting the man several times, The Bangkok Post reported.

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