NARATHIWAT: Two explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) officers were killed and another badly injured in a roadside bombing in Si Sakhon district of this southern border province, as a military convoy of the deputy commander of the 4th Army Region drove past on Friday.
The blast occurred on a local road at Aikasae village Moo 6 in tambon Si Sakhon, said Pol Lt Suparerk Chamroennusit, deputy investigation chief at Sri Sakhon police station, who was reported around 3.15pm. The incident took place about 800 metres away from a military outpost.
The attack was aimed at the military convoy of Maj Gen Paisarn Nusang, deputy commander of the 4th Army Region and deputy director of the 4th Region Forward Commander of the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc).
The explosion left a crafter, about one metre deep and two metres wide, in the middle of the road. Pieces of the bomb were found scattered over the road.
Authorities found a badly damaged Toyota Fortuner belonging to an EOD unit about 30 metres from the crater. The vehicle overturned, and two officers were killed and their bodies trapped in the wreckage. Another soldier was badly injured and also trapped inside.
The dead officers were Maj Likhit Witthayapraparat and driver Sgt Maj First Class Issara Lerknok. The injured soldier was Sgt Saksorn Sainam, who was rushed to a hospital.
The SUV, carrying explosive ordnance disposal officers, overturns after being hit by a roadside bombing in Si Sakhon district, Narathiwat province, on Friday. (Photo: Abdullah Benjakat)
According to a police investigation, unknown assailants opened fire and threw grenades into the military outpost on Thursday, but no casualties were reported. Maj Gen Paisarn and his team travelling in four vehicles came to inspect the outpost before the roadside bombing.
Following the inspection, the team left the outpost. Maj Gen Paisarn’s miltary van was third in the convoy, behind the SUV carrying the EOD officers.
The roadside bomb went off shortly after the SUV drove past. The force of the blast caused the vehicle to overturn several times before it landed on the side of the road.
An initial investigation found that the explosive device was a home-made bomb, packed into a cooking gas cylinder weighing at least 50 kilogrammes. Batteries and electric wires were found in the nearby roadside forest.