The Thai government said yesterday that Islamic militants trained raiders who brazenly attacked an army camp recently and admitted incompetence in its intelligence and security operations in the Muslim-dominated provinces of southern Thailand.
"We knew that things were going to happen. We knew that they [militant groups] were recruiting and training people," Defense Minister Thammarak Issarangkura na Ayudhaya told a Cabinet meeting.
The minister said the recruits were young people studying at Muslim religious schools but did not specify where or by whom they were trained. Thai intelligence sources say the training takes place in southern Thailand although officials fear local militants are being aided by outside terror groups linked to al-Qaeda.
Meanwhile, Thai and Malaysian military forces began joint land and air patrols along their jungle border for the first time since the 1970s and the Thais announced they had stepped up security at airports across the country.
The patrols were to have begun in March, but Thailand requested they be hastened after the recent attacks, fearing the raiders could flee to mostly Islamic Malaysia.
The attack on the army camp on Jan. 4 left four soldiers dead in southern Narathiwat province. The attackers raided the camp's armory and stole more than 100 assault rifles. Simultaneously, 21 government-run schools were set on fire. A string of bombings and attempted bombings followed, killing two police officers.
The last coordinated border patrols along the Southeast Asian neighbors' shared border were during Malaysia's decades-long communist insurgency, when rebels launched attacks in Malaysia from jungle hide-outs in Thailand. The insurgency petered out by the 1980s.
The two countries agreed to resume joint patrols as part of security pacts signed in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the US, to combat smuggling, illegal migration and other transnational crimes along the remote, porous barrier.
Anan Kongyeun, deputy chief of Bangkok International Airport's security division, said precautionary measures and the number of security personnel had been expanded at airports following the most recent violence, "because what happened there could happen elsewhere."
The measures would be in place until the situation calmed, he said.
He said security was especially tight at Hat Yai airport, the aerial gateway to southern Thailand, located 930km south of the capital Bangkok.
Thammarak told the Cabinet session that it was even known that students ask permission from their parents to attend military training. His comments were carried in an unprecedented live radio and television broadcast of the weekly meeting.
The minister was interrupted by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra who lashed out at the lack of cooperation among security, intelligence and military units.
"We knew that they train in the jungles from 1am, so may I ask `Can we chase and stop them from training? Yes, we can if we take the offensive but instead we work out of our bases, our offices,"' Thaksin said.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday declared martial law in an unannounced late night address broadcast live on YTN television. Yoon said he had no choice but to resort to such a measure in order to safeguard free and constitutional order, saying opposition parties have taken hostage of the parliamentary process to throw the country into a crisis. "I declare martial law to protect the free Republic of Korea from the threat of North Korean communist forces, to eradicate the despicable pro-North Korean anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people, and to protect the free
France on Friday showed off to the world the gleaming restored interior of Notre-Dame cathedral, a week before the 850-year-old medieval edifice reopens following painstaking restoration after the devastating 2019 fire. French President Emmanuel Macron conducted an inspection of the restoration, broadcast live on television, saying workers had done the “impossible” by healing a “national wound” after the fire on April 19, 2019. While every effort has been made to remain faithful to the original look of the cathedral, an international team of designers and architects have created a luminous space that has an immediate impact on the visitor. The floor shimmers and
CHAGOS ISLANDS: Recently elected Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam told lawmakers that the contents of negotiations are ‘unknown’ to the government Mauritius’ new prime minister ordered an independent review of a deal with the UK involving a strategically important US-UK military base in the Indian Ocean, placing the agreement under fresh scrutiny. Under a pact signed last month, the UK ceded sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago to Mauritius, while retaining control of Diego Garcia — the island where the base is situated. The deal was signed by then-Mauritian prime minister Pravind Jugnauth and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Oct. 3 — a month before elections in Mauritius in which Navin Ramgoolam became premier. “I have asked for an independent review of the
LAOS: The bars of bustling Vang Vieng remain open, but information on the investigation into the deaths of six backpackers from suspected methanol poisoning is scarce The music is still playing and the alcohol is still flowing at the bars along one of the party streets in Vang Vieng. Inside a popular venue, a voice over the speaker announces a special offer on beers, as disco lights flicker on the floor. Small paper flags from nations across the world — from the UK to Gabon — hang from the ceiling. Young people travel from all corners of the globe to party in the small town nestled in the Laos countryside, but Vang Vieng is under a global spotlight, following a suspected mass methanol poisoning that killed six
RSS