YALA: An army ranger was killed and three other ranger volunteers wounded in a roadside bomb attack in Bannang Sata district of this southern border province on Friday.
The bomb went off on Yala-Betong Road in tambon Bannang Sata, near Ban Taopoon School, around 10am when a patrol of army rangers and ranger volunteers walked past the area, said a police officer at the Bannang Stat district police station’s radio centre.
An initial investigation found that attackers, who were hiding at a rubber plantation behind the school, immediately detonated the bomb when the patrol arrived at the spot.
The dead ranger was identified as Sgt Sommai Natsuebwong. The injured ranger volunteers were Natthaphol Upatha, who sustained broken legs; Komin Sarathee, who sustained serious shrapnel wounds along his body, and Porncharoen Yokphoonpholdee with head injuries.
One of three injured ranger volunteers is taken to a local hospital following the bomb blast in Yala's Bannang Sata district. (Photo: Abdullah Benjakat)
Police cordoned off the scene, pending the arrival of explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) officers to examine the area.
Police said the bomb blast happened at a deserted house near Ban Taopoon School. The force of the blast left a crater at the house. Pieces of a cooking gas cylinder and a bomb were scattered over the area, and it was believed that the 30kg-bomb was placed inside the cylinder.
According to the investigation, Sgt Sommai, head of the patrol team, along with seven other patrol members, were on foot patrol at a local community approximately 300-500 meters away from the school to ensure public safety. Attackers had planted the bomb in dense grass near the house where construction materials, water pipes and a concrete pole were left. When the ranger team arrived, the bomb was detonated, throwing Sgt Sommai's body away from the blast scene due to the force of the explosion.
Authorities suspect that the attack might be the work of insurgents who are still active in this southern district.
The bomb, weighing 30 kilogrammes placed inside a cooking gas cylinder, was planted in dense grass near this deserted house in Bannang Sata district, Yala. (Photo: Abdullah Benjakat)
The bomb blast followed a string of arson attacks in three southernmost border provinces late on Thursday night.
Pol Lt Gen Nanthadet Yoinuan, commissioner of Provincial Police Region 9, reported that mobile phone antenna towers of all mobile systems were torched, and the investigation was ongoing.
EOD officers examine the blast site in Yala's Bannang Sata district on Friday morning. (Photo supplied/ Wassana Nanuam)