Jihad in Thailand

Via Pamela Geller, Andrew Bolt, Jihad Watch:

Jihad in Thailand: Three Coordinated Bomb Attacks in Yala, 10 Dead, Hundreds Wounded

Won’t be long before it spreads to Thailand’s main tourist destinations:

~~SUSPECTED Muslim insurgents~~ ISLAMIC TERRORISTS have staged the most deadly coordinated attacks in years in Thailand’s south, killing 14 people and wounding 340 with car bombs that targeted shoppers and a high-rise hotel frequented by foreign tourists.

A first batch of explosives planted inside a parked pickup truck ripped through an area of restaurants and shops in a busy area of Yala city, a main commercial hub of Thailand’s restive southern provinces, said district police chief Colonel. Kritsada Kaewchandee.

About 20 minutes later, just as onlookers gathered at the blast site, a second car bomb exploded, causing the majority of casualties. Eleven people were killed and 110 wounded by the blasts.

More than 5,000 people have been killed in Thailand’s three southernmost provinces – Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala – since an Islamist insurgency flared in January 2004.

Laughable:

“We are not sure which group of suspected Muslim insurgents were behind this but we are looking” — ~~eight~~ ten murdered in Thailand bombings

Islam did it. Not some “group of suspected Muslim insurgents”. Unless we get ourselves to hold all Muslims and Islam collectively responsible we cannot respond to the global jihad in any meaningful way.

All they pretend to know is that the attacks involved Misunderstanders of the Religion of Peace. “Three deadly explosions hit Yala in southern Thailand, officials say,” from the BBC, March 31 (thanks to JW):

At least eight people have been killed in three explosions in the southern Thai province of Yala, officials say.Yala Governor Dejrat Simsiri said the blasts occurred over 10 minutes at around midday (06:00 BST) in the commercial district of Yala city.

He said two of the bombs were hidden in motorcycles and the third in a car.

Thailand’s three southern-most provinces have been plagued by bomb attacks and shootings since 2004, when a separatist campaign reignited.

“We are not sure which group of suspected Muslim insurgents were behind this but we are looking,” Mr Dejrat said.

The Associated Press and Reuters news agencies put the death toll from Saturday’s bombings at eight, with around 70 wounded. AFP quoted a nurse in the emergency unit of Yala provincial hospital as saying nine people had died.

“There are nine dead now and 112 injured people sent to our hospital,” the hospital worker told AFP.
Map of Thailand

Thai police told AFP a policeman had also been injured in a separate motorcycle attack in Mae Lan in neighbouring Pattani province.

Thai officials said another explosion on Saturday – at a hotel in the city of Hat Yai, Songkhla province – was due to a gas leak and unrelated to the attacks, Associated Press reported.

More than 4,300 people have been killed in the violence in southern Thailand. As of 2011, the Thai army had 60,000 forces stationed in the region to tackle the insurgency.

Thailand annexed the three provinces – Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani – in 1902, but the majority of people there are Muslim and speak a Malay dialect, in contrast with the Buddhists in the rest of the country who speak Thai.

Critics accuse the government of failing to address the grievances of these residents.