1 police killed, 6 injured in bombing in restive south Thailand

A bombing in restive southern province of Yala killed one police officer and wounded six others, Thai News Agency reported on Wednesday. The group of seven police officers were on their routine patrol on the Yala-Betong road in Yala's Betong district when the bomb went off late Tuesday night. After the incident, tires were burnt and tripod spikes were thrown on the road leading to the site of the bombing, to obstruct the arrival of assistance. The seven injured police officers were rushed to hospital, but Police Inspector Sama-ae Luemae was later pronounced dead at hospital. The buried bomb left a crater two meters wide and one meter deep, and the police vehicle was destroyed. Initially, police believed the incident to be the work of an insurgent group. Meanwhile, in Yala's Yaha district, tires were burnt on roads at three locations and a tree was felled across a road also on Tuesday night. The police believed it was the work of insurgents to create disturbances. More than 5,000 people have been killed and over 9,000 hurt in over 11,000 incidents, about 3.5 incidents a day, in Thailand's Muslim, ethnic-Malay dominated three southern border provinces -- Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat and four districts of Songkhla -- since violence erupted in January 2004, according to Deep South Watch, which monitors the regional violence.