Troops dodge bomb blast

Troops dodge bomb blast

NARATHIWAT : A bomb exploded on Phetkasem Road in Yi-ngo yesterday in an apparent attempt to attack soldiers.

Police and bomb disposal experts rushed to the blast scene near a bridge on the road in tambon Lubo Buesa. No one was injured.

The bomb exploded when 12 soldiers from the 32nd Narathiwat Taskforce on three motorcycles and in a pickup truck were passing by about 1pm, Cap Paramet Khamchomphu, head of the taskforce's military unit, said. The soldiers were on their way to take part in a football match at Ban Kuyi in Yi-ngo district, he said.

They found a bomb crater and shrapnel of a home-made bomb scattered around the site. The bomb, weighing five kilogrammes, was inside a water pipe and was detonated by mobile phone signals, police said.

In Pattani, meanwhile, a marine officer was shot dead as he prepared to go out fishing in Mai Kaen district yesterday.

The victim was indentified as Chief Petty Officer 1st Class Manu Kaewmanee, attached to the Chulabhorn Camp's marine taskforce in Narathiwat.

Witnesses said the officer was about to go fishing with a group of local fishermen. As he was sitting on the beach in Ban Pa Mai, a man, who was mingling among local people, walked up to him and shot him in the head with a handgun.

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