Bomb attacks kill three in southern Thailand hinh anh 1Police investigate the bombing in Pattani on May 27 (Photo: AFP/VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – Two bomb attacks have hit the south of Thailand, which has a big Muslim population, killing three people and injuring several others.

On May 27, a motorcycle bomb went off at a busy market in Nong Chik district of Pattani province, leaving a 14-year-old boy and a 38-year-old woman dead, and wounding four military rangers.

The blast appeared to be a counterattack after authorities shot dead a fugitive suspected rebel leader in the neighbouring Yala province. The suspect was Abdulloh Lateh, 37, considered to be head of insurgents’ operations in the Yaha district.

The bombing came a day after another bomb attack in Songkhla province killed a police officer at a security checkpoint and injured three others.

Nearly 7,000 people, mostly civilians, have died in Thailand’s three southernmost provinces of Yala, Pattani, and Narathiwat since violence first broke out in early 2004.–VNA 
VNA