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Updated at 11am
THAI POLICE SAY a series of bombings that have killed four people and rattled tourist destinations in the south of the country were acts of local sabotage and not “terrorist” in nature.
There are no indications that any Irish travellers were caught up in the attacks.
“This is not a terrorist attack. It is just local sabotage that is restricted to limited areas and provinces,” national police deputy spokesman Piyapan Pingmuang told reporters in Bangkok.
At least 11 bombs, many of them twin blasts, have hit five southern provinces in the past 24 hours, killing four people and wounding several dozen, including foreigners.
“It is still unclear which group is behind the bombings,” the spokesman said, though he dismissed speculation that Muslim rebels waging a rebellion in Thailand’s far south were behind the recent attacks.
Thailand’s southern tip has been home to a festering insurgency for over a decade, but the violence is largely contained to the border region, which lies far from the site of the recent bombings.
A police statement ordered officers across the country to “step up security at significant government offices and symbolic places, especially the bus terminals, train stations, and airports, tourist spots, restaurants, and entertainment places where a lot of people are gathering”.
Local media have reported several fires in southern provinces over the past 24 hours but it was not immediately clear if they were connected to the bombings.
Earlier, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha called for calm and said he did not know who was behind the attacks, while analysts tentatively pointed the finger at Muslim insurgent groups in the south who have for years been fighting the Thai state.
Twin bombs exploded in the upscale resort of Hua Hin late last night, killing one woman and wounding more than 20 others, including nine foreign tourists, and were followed by two more this morning that killed another person.
AFP journalists saw injured and bleeding people lying on the pavements shortly after the latest explosions, as emergency workers rushed to the scene and took them away in ambulances.
A further two blasts struck today at Patong Beach on the popular tourist island of Phuket, while two more bombs were reported in the southern towns of Trang and Surat Thani, in each of which one person was killed.
“The bombs are an attempt to create chaos and confusion,” Prayut told reporters. “We should not make people panic more.”
Why have the bombs occurred as our country is heading towards stability, a better economy and tourism — and who did it? You have to find out.
The two bombs that went off in Hua Hin yesterday were hidden in potted plants and went off within 30 minutes of each other in the bar district of the popular beach town.
According to a Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson:
[The Department] is aware of the incident and there are no indications of any Irish casualties. The Embassy in Bangkok have been monitoring the situation and we stand ready to assist if required.
Heightened tension
While small bombings are common in the kingdom during periods of heightened political tension, there have been few such incidents in the past year and it is rare for tourists to be targeted.
Britain and Australia reacted by advising their nationals to avoid public places.
Hua Hin is home to the Klai Kangwon (Far From Worries) summer palace ofThailand’s revered royal family, and the firsts blasts came on the eve of Queen Sirikit’s 84th birthday and just ahead of the first anniversary of a Bangkok shrine bombing that killed 20.
Hua Hin’s district chief, Sutthipong Klai-udom, told AFP that the first bombs were detonated by mobile phone. Staff at local hospitals said German, Italian, Dutch and Austrian nationals were among the wounded.
“It was very shocking. There was a loud noise and police were running everywhere, it was terrible,” said Michael Edwards, an Australian tourist staying in a guest house close to where the second bomb detonated.
“I was just surprised that it happened here… now I’m thinking if it’s worth staying,” he told AFP.
Record tourism
Hua Hin is an upscale resort town about 200 kilometres south of Bangkok, popular with both local and foreign tourists.
The palace there has for years been favoured by King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world’s longest reigning monarch.
The 88-year-old is currently hospitalised in Bangkok for a number of health issues, a source of anxiety for many Thais and a key factor in the kingdom’s past decade of political turmoil.
Paul Chambers, an expert on the Thai military, said rebels from the south were prime suspects in the blasts.
“The culprits are most likely Malay-Muslim insurgent groups fighting the Thai state in the deep south,” he said.
The attack on Hua Hin seems like a direct affront at the Kingdom of Thailand. Hua Hin is home to a royal palace… also, the bombing comes on the queen’s birthday.
Zachary Abuza, an expert on Southeast Asian militant groups, said that although the southern insurgents had not carried out coordinated attacks for years, “it’s not that they haven’t or couldn’t, it’s just been a while”.
Whoever has perpetrated these wants to do serious damage to the Thai economy. That is where the junta is the most vulnerable.
Thailand’s military rulers, who seized power in 2014 after a decade of at times violent political unrest, have touted an increase in stability in the kingdom as a major accomplishment of its rule.
The junta last weekend saw its new version of the constitution approved in a referendum, although the three insurgency-hit provinces rejected the controversial statute.
‘Land of Smiles’
Thailand’s reputation as the ‘Land of Smiles’ has suffered in recent years from political unrest and a number of high-profile crimes against foreigners.
But tourists continue to flock to its white, sandy beaches and Buddhist temples.
The kingdom is expecting a record 32 million visitors in 2016, with the tourism industry a bright spot in an otherwise lacklustre economy.
The latest blasts came just days before the first anniversary of the last major attack on tourists in Thailand - a 17 August bomb that killed 20 people, mostly ethnic Chinese tourists.
That blast ripped through a crowded Hindu shrine in the heart of Bangkok and stunned the kingdom as the deadliest assault in recent history.
Two Uighur men from western China have been accused of the attack and are due to go on trial later this month. Both have denied any involvement.
© – AFP, 2016 with reporting from Cianan Brennan.
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That’s not a “clash” that is outright murder. Typical journal, parroting Israeli propaganda.
Wouldn’t it be great to heat the Palestinian side of the story as they have no way to defend the propaganda from israel media and their allies
@frank_66: hear
@frank_66: The Defence for Children International Palestine website is well worth signing up to, they give a full list of the Palestinian children killed and imprisoned by the Occupation forces,many of them held without charge by ‘ secret evidence’, all of them are tried under military law in Hebrew, a language most of them do not understand, some of them are transferred to prisons in Israel, a war crime under the Geneva conventions. Israeli colonists living in the Occupied territories are subject to Israeli civil law. Only significant sanctions by the international community will change the actions of the Israeli government.
@Gavan Duffy: must have a look at that
@frank_66: the kid probably had a weapon of mass destruction in his hand, a stone. And the poorly armed Israeli military had every right to defend itself.
If only the media would call it what it is it’s not self defense its ethnic cleansing and a land grab. Boycott Israeli goods.
The ex head of Mossad said today ‘if a man constitutes a capability that endangers the citizens of Israel, he must stop existing.’ Yes, you read it right: ‘he must stop existing’. Policy in a nutshell.
So we are witnessing a genocide and nothing being done about it.
End Apartheid… Boycott Israeli goods. #BDS
The anti Israeli sentiment expressed here is shocking frightening and shameful.
@Raymond Barry: its anti child murder, anti apartheid, anti ethnic cleansing, rather than anti israhelli sentiment.
@Raymond Barry: why? Being anti apartheid, anti ethnic cleansing, being against the use of lethal force against children…. How is any of that shsmeful???
@Raymond Barry: nothing to say about another Child murdered by the Israeli state? Says alot about you!
@Raymond Barry: Anti Countries breaching International laws and human rights on a daily basis… shocking in no way at all!
@Raymond Barry: what’s wrong with anti Israel sentiment? Would you have said the same thing about South Africa in the 80′s?
@Raymond Barry: shameful? What actually IS shameful is supporting a country that behaves that way.
@Raymond Barry: It certainly is shameful if you are an Israeli and supports its apartheid and murderous treatment of Palestinians.
So Raymond when you and others are not defending Israeli actions and condemn Palestinian actions, you dont feel its frightening, shocking and shameful?
@Raymond Barry: you should be ashamed of yourself.
@Raymond Barry: indeed Barry. Who sends a 15 years old to attack soldiers? Hamas do that. Want a child casualty. Poor fella brainwashed. Hope the soldiers get the counselling they need.
@Tom Ripley: You are full of hatred. Get treatment.
@Shedonny: don’t answer him he doesn’t exist troll.
@Raymond Barry:
Ever wondered why there is anti Israeli sentiment?
Perhaps because of events such as this (and there were many of them, Palestinians had to be replaced with immigrants in order to achieve the Israeli “dream”, or “nightmare” for the Palestinians).
On 7 June 1967 Israel expelled over 2,000 Palestinians from the village of Imwas in the West Bank. Today, this would be called ethnic cleansing. The village was then destroyed and “reforested,” turned into a popular picnicking park for Israelis, that very deliberately obscures all traces that people actually lived in this spot 52 years ago. The Jewish National Fund raised $5 million in Canada to build it, so it is called Canada Park.
Some of the villagers took refuge with relatives in Jerusalem, others crossed the Jordan River and ended up in new camps created in Jordan, and others would have ended up in refugee camps in Gaza.
Two other villages near Imwas were also ethnically cleansed in June 1967, Yalu and Beit Nuba.
Never forget!
@Raymond Barry: Especially since it’s a historical sentiment we have against Jews, no matter where they live. Hamas and clerics send teens out with instructions to riot, throw rocks and set off firecrackers near soldiers of a tiny state surrounded by countries with millions who hate them for their religion alone, knowing the outcome. Coveney was wrong. We have a history more in line with Israel than Palestine, so should understand where they are coming from.
Israel act with complete impunity. Always have. That’s the accepted, disturbing whitewash.
So a few here have said “boycott Israeli goods” I thought we had? “We” being the government, to stop importing? Now, I could be 100% totally wrong….if I am please shout at me as I’m a blithering idiöt….can someone help in regards what exactly do we import from Israel?
@The Kev in Kevlar: it’s the companies who financially support Israel like coca cola you need to boycott you can get a list of them on the Internet and you can check up israel bar code. A lot of cosmetic companies support them as well as car companies etc
@Mona Murphy: super, thanks for the info!:)
@The Kev in Kevlar:
A lot of fruit and vegetables come from Israel, grown on Palestinian land but labelled as “made in Israel” to profit from the low tariffs agreed with the EU. This is illegal and should stop. Ireland needs to pass the Occupied Territories Bill, which FG blocked during the negotiations for the new government last year.
Tesco has Israeli potatoes and avocados. Vote with your purse, don’t buy them.
@The Kev in Kevlar: Still a lot of Israeli fruit and veg in the shops, stuff you can grow here in the summer, or within the EU all year round. Makes no sense be it for environmental or political reasons. Boycott Israeli products, but also, just try to shop local when possible!
@The Kev in Kevlar: all the technology
You use ie mobile phones. TV, cars. Mobile maps. Medicines,. Computers,
Radio, s.. Hospital equipment etc
Have israeli components in them..
So you might as well stop living!!!
@Mona Murphy:
See the BDS movement website: https://bdsmovement.net/.
In the meantime, here are a few products you can boycott if you wish:
AHAVA DEAD SEA COSMETICS
Ahava manufactures its cosmetics in a factory in the illegal Mitzpe Shalem settlement in occupied West Bank, but labels its products imported into the EU as from “The Dead Sea, Israel.” It uses uses Palestinian natural resources without the permission of or compensation to Palestinians. Israel denies Palestinians access to the shores of the Dead Sea and its resources, although one-third of the shore of the Dead Sea lies in the occupied West Bank.
VICTORIA SECRETS
Palestinians have criticized the company for establishing its headquarters on land expropriated from Palestinians.
INTEL
Intel plants are on the site of the former Palestinian villages Iraq al-Manshiya and Faluja, from which villagers were forcibly expelled in 1948 to achieve Israel’s strategic plan to achieve ‘Arab-clear’ frontiers”, i.e. ethnic cleansing.
MCDONALDS
McDonalds has a partnership with the Jewish United Fund, which promotes visits to Kiryat Gat, built on top of a destroyed Palestinian village.
SODASTREAM CARBONED PRODUCTS
Sodasteam is located in the illegal Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim. The company directly supports Israel’s illegal occupation and colonization of Palestinian land by paying taxes to municipal settlement governments, employing local settlers, and providing the economic infrastructure for Israel’s settlement expansion.
@Victor Feldman: stop living like the 15 year old murdered by an apartheid government that doesn’t have the backing of many of their citizens. https://www.btselem.org/
Raymond Barry
So the murder of children isn’t shocking.
have your say