Thailand’s jihad linked to past Islamic rule

Thailand’s far south suffers under jihad as terrorists vie to re-establish past Islamic rule

Al Jazeera reports there are reasons the Islamic terrorists are so upset: Muslims are a 90-percent majority in the far south, yet they suffer “discrimination” by the majority Buddhist government.

An Islamic domain fell in 1903, placing the Muslims under the new regime that today is Thailand. Al Jazeera does not say so, but the implication of freedom fighter is there.

Al Jazeera reports on the latest violence…

A bomb explosion at a market in Thailand's south has injured at least 27 people.

The blast on Tuesday comes a day after two attacks on the army left eight soldiers dead, marking a departure from a relative lull in violence in the troubled region.

Tuesday's blast occurred shortly after a young Muslim man parked a motorcycle near the busy morning market, police Colonel Phumphet Phiphatphetphum said.

He said people were injured by the blast and in the ensuing panic in Yala, the capital of the southern province of the same name.

Soldiers ambushed

The blast occurred a day after an army patrol in neighboring Narathiwat province was ambushed, leaving eight soldiers dead, one of them beheaded, in the worst attack on the Thai military in the south since June last year.

An army spokesman called the ambush a reaction to what he claimed was the military's progress in tracking down leaders of an uprising in the mostly-Muslim south.

Surayud Chulanont, the Thai prime minister, tried to downplay any apparent upsurge in violence.

"This kind of clash can happen any time. It is not a serious escalation," he said.

Attacks in the south have declined since August, down by almost half to about 20 recorded incidents in the September to November period, according to the Deep South Watch centre at Pattani's Prince of Songkhla University.

But Monday's ambush came just an hour after a roadside bomb targeted another convoy protecting teachers in Yala province, injuring two of the soldiers, local police said.

Attacks in the region have grown increasingly brutal in recent months, with victims beheaded, mutilated and even crucified.

The military and police have also come under a cloud of suspicion, with the army saying it might have spies supplying fighters with information and seven police officers under investigation, the Bangkok Post reported.

On Sunday, six suspected fighters escaped from Tanyong police station in Narathiwat. The fugitives had been in custody for several days awaiting trial for more than 10 cases of violence.

Count on Al Jazeera for an unbiased report about Islamic terrorism.

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