Non-Subscriber Extract
JTIC Briefing: Thai insurgents widen their target base
- Article Tools
| 14 April 2005 |
By Anthony Davis
Less than two months after the first successful car bomb attack in southern Thailand on 17 February, co-ordinated bombings in the southern centre of Hat Yai have shown insurgents' willingness to cross another ominous psychological and political watershed. For the first time since Muslim unrest gained momentum in 2002, the attacks - which killed two and wounded more than 50 on 3 April - have carried an accelerating separatist insurgency beyond its heartland in the majority Malay-Muslim border provinces to strike at Buddhist civilian targets elsewhere in the country.
A little more than one hour's drive from Pattani, Hat Yai has been viewed as a potential target for bombings since the current wave of violence accelerated in early 2004. The city had attracted sporadic separatist bombings during earlier periods of unrest, with its railway station a favourite target. As recently as six months ago, intelligence reports warned of a possible attack against one of the city's several huge new supermarkets.
However, the passage of time appeared to have fostered a mindset among security officials that the insurgents were either unable or unwilling to move their campaign beyond its heartland in Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat. One Western security expert who visits the city frequently noted: "The authorities obviously believed their own line that it would stay in the three provinces and never come to Hat Yai." Against this backdrop, good intelligence on insurgent intentions, let alone impending operations, has been perennially problematic.
JTIC has learned from reliable sources that Thai intelligence agencies believe two Syrian nationals may have been involved in both the Hat Yai blasts and a car bomb attack in Sungai Kolok on 17 February. These suspicions throw into sharper relief the probability of some degree of active foreign involvement in the current campaign, in addition to the external funding that is understood to have fuelled its growth.
309 of 1,420 words