NARATHIWAT – In what security experts are calling a dangerous escalation of the violence that has scarred southern Thailand, insurgents running low on unbombed targets planted a bomb atop a previously-placed bomb in a Narathiwat market on Thursday.
Having already bombed most practical targets in the area, including train stations, police boxes, night clubs, noodle stalls, elementary schools, Buddhist monks, and children, area terrorists are left with a dwindling number of places in which sow their destruction, said Lieutenant General Surachai Suebsuk, the Narathiwat police commander.
“The development of ‘bomb-bombing’ gives them a wealth of new bombing opportunities,” Lt. Gen. Surachai said as another bomb ripped a new hole in a weeks-old bomb crater several feet away.
“With all the bombs littering the area, the terrorists now have almost unlimited places to plant new bombs,” he shouted above the screams coming from a burning, bombed-out minibus full of nurses nearby.
Members of the army’s explosives disposal unit were able to dismantle the bomb atop the bomb, but the initial device detonated as they were working, killing seven troops and severely damaging an unexploded grenade hidden in a rubbish bin.
