Bomb Triggered from Malaysian Side of Border Hurts 6 Thai Cops: Officials

Six border policemen were slightly injured Friday in an unusual attack in Thailand’s war-torn Deep South when suspected rebels detonated a bomb from the Malaysian side of a narrow river that separates the two countries, according to Thai authorities.

The late-afternoon attack occurred in Na Nak, a sub-district of Narathiwat province’s Tak Bai district that lies across the border from Kelantan state in Malaysia, when rebels standing on the Malaysian bank of the Golok River triggered the roadside bomb, Thai officials said.

The assailants had planted the improvised bomb on the road and connected it to wiring that stretched across the river to a detonator on the bank in Kelantan, officials said. The rebels set off the bomb on Thai soil in the village of Toyamoo as a truck carrying the border guards drove by.

“The assailants triggered a bomb to try to kill the BPP [Border Patrol Police Company] 4413 who were patrolling the street along the Golok River. … We found pieces of improvised bomb near a water gate (on Thai side) and the trigger-wire ran across from Malaysian side,” said Capt. Boonsanit Khiewpradit, the deputy investigator at Tak Bai Police station.

Such an attack is rare, but leaders of rebel groups are believed to be hiding out on the Malaysian side of the border. Insurgents at times have crossed the frontier to carry out attacks on the Thai side before slipping back into Malaysian territory, according to Thai sources.

The six Thai border guards who sustained non-life threatening injuries on Friday included Lt. Capt. Manoch Kongsuk, the unit’s commander, who was cut under an eye and later sent for treatment at a hospital in the district, Boonsanit said.

“We came back from providing security at a village event, but when we arrived at the scene assailants who were hidden behind the brush on Malaysian soil triggered the bomb with a battery,” Manoch told reporters.