2 security personnel killed, 26 hurt by bombs in S. Thailand

BANGKOK – A soldier and a policeman were killed and 26 other people wounded by two bombs believed to have been set off by Muslim separatists in southern Thailand on Thursday, police said.

Capt. Prasobchoke Trakoon-in of the Yaha district police station in Yala province said assailants detonated one bomb as a team of paramilitary rangers passed on a road. After more security personnel arrived about 20 minutes later, a second bomb exploded.

Police Lance Cpl. Yutthanakorn Kunsadub said most of the wounded were bomb disposal officers.

More than 6,500 people have been killed since a Muslim separatist insurgency flared in Thailand’s three southernmost provinces of Yala, Pattani, and Narathiwat in 2004. Recent cease-fire talks between the government and some separatist factions have made little progress.