A car bomb attack on the Marina Hotel in southern Thailand target suggests a new level of capability for Jihadis operating in that area. Ac...
A car bomb attack on the Marina Hotel in southern Thailand target suggests a
new level of capability for Jihadis operating in that area. According to
href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000080&sid=atx1B_JW.lHI&refer=asia">
Bloomberg News:
The explosion occurred today at about 7 p.m. Bangkok time in the Sungai
Kolok district of Narathiwat province, 1,150 kilometers (719 miles) south of
Bangkok, Pracha Tayrat, the province's governor, said in an interview with
Bangkok-based 96- Megaherz radio. The bomb was placed in a pickup truck in
front of the Marina Hotel, he said. "The situation is worsening
and becoming
more violent with the use of a car bomb," Pracha said.
"It's the first time
that a car bomb was used in an attack, compared with motorcycles
earlier. That
will be hard to prevent."
The Thais had formerly feared only motorcycle-borne IEDs. According
to the
href="http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2005/02/17/car_bomb_kills_5_injures_40_in_thai_tourist_town/">
Boston Globe:
"We were paying attention to motorcycles because we thought
they might use
them as they have before. We never thought that Thais would have become this
cruel. Such a car bomb here is similar to those in Iraq,"
Pracha said. ...
Officials said the bomb, estimated to contain about 220 pounds of
fertilizer, exploded in a car behind a hotel in Sungai Kolok, a town near the
Malaysian border whose bars and nightclubs are popular with
tourists. "This is
the first car bomb in the region after we defused a similar one made of a gas
cylinder and fertilizer here two years ago," Narathiwat
provincial governor
Pracha Taerat told Reuters at the scene, littered with charred
motorcycles and
cars. Sungai Kolok police chief Surasak Rommayanont said four people died
instantly at a noodle shop near the blast. A medical officer at the local
hospital said more than 40 were injured. Fourteen were taken to hospital, but
Pracha said one of them had since died.
Director of Central Intelligence
target="_blank">
Porter Goss testified that Jihadists who survived Iraq
would leave it
"experienced in and focused on acts of urban terrorism. They represent a
potential pool of contacts to build transational terrorist cells, groups, and
networks in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and other countries" Whatever
the provenance of
the new technical sophistication of Islamic attackers in Thailand, it
represents
an advance in their capabiity to kill. Goss added that terrorist networks in
Southeast Asia communicated expertise among themselves. The car bomb technology
demonstrated in Thailand had every potential of diffusing regionally. "In
Southeast Asia, the Jemaah Islamiya (JI) continues to pose a threat to US and
Western interests in Indonesia and the Philippines, where JI is colluding with
the Abu Sayyaf Group and possibly the MILF."
The Philippines was recently attacked by three separate bomb attacks on
Valentine's Day. One of those was a motorcycle bomb. According to the
BBC:
One of Monday's blasts happened in General Santos City, when a bomb
destroyed a parked motorcycle taxi outside a shopping mall, killing at least
three people. Almost simultaneously, a bomb exploded at a bus terminal in
Davao City. A 12-year-old boy is reported to have died in the attack. About
half an hour later, a third blast went off in the Makati business district of
the capital, Manila, killing at least three people.
It is probably only a matter of time before car bomb attacks are made on
cities in Thailand, the Philippines and Australia. It may be recalled that the
Philippines withdrew its participation in Operation Iraqi Freedom in
2004 in the
expectation that it would be spared by the Jihadis. A contemporaneous
account from
MSNBC recalls the jubilation by official Manila after recalling
their troops
in exchange for the release of a Filipino hostage.
July 22, 2004 -- A Filipino truck driver who was released from
captivity in
Iraq after the government withdrew its troops a month early returned
home to a
hero's welcome Thursday. ... The Philippines drew sharp criticism from the
United States and other allies over its decision to meet the demands of dela
Cruz's kidnappers and withdraw a 51-member peacekeeping contingent
from Iraq a
month early. The move was branded a dangerous precedent that put other
coalition allies in danger. Arroyo has said she does not regret her decision,
and her spokesman claims her critics should appreciate that she had to put
national interests first.
The recent attacks on the Philippines were accompanied by a demand for the
release of Nur Misuari, who led a rebellion after having refusing to step down
from office in an autonomous Muslim region when his term had expired. Having
succeeded through intimidation in Iraq the Jihadis probably
believed that
bombs, which they described as a "Valentine's Day gift"
would renew his term of
office. Already the Filipino
Peace
Lobby is arguing that further concessions will buy
"immunity" and are asking
for Misuari's release as a 'confidence building measure'. Perhaps Arroyo now
understands that immunity from the Jihad cannot be purchased except by
ever greater measures of abjection and tribute: that neither being Buddhist
Thailand nor being a 12 year old boy in Davao City makes any difference at all.
In the meantime she will expect her ally the United States to stand firm beside
the Philippines in the way that she would not. It is more than likely that
Arroyo will appease the Peace Lobby and the Jihadis to buy another space
of "peace". It will not last. She should remember that the next
Valentine's Day gift from the Jihadis will probably be a string of car
bombs.
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