Bomb blasts leave 4 wounded in restive southern Thailand

Four soldiers and policemen were wounded in two separate bomb blasts in restive southern border provinces of Pattani and Yala on Wednesday, local media reported. In Pattani, two soldiers got wounded in a bomb explosion while riding a motorcycle on a teacher protection mission patrol in the provincial seat. The explosive device was buried underground. In an incident in Yala, two police officers in a teacher protection unit were wounded in a roadside bomb blast. The 15 kilogram bomb was detonated remotely by radio signal, police said. Police are investigating and have not yet concluded if the southern Muslim insurgents are involved in the incidents. More than 5,000 people have been killed and more than 9,000 others wounded in over 11,000 incidents, about 3.5 incidents a day, in the three Muslim, ethnic-Malay dominated southern border provinces -- Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat and four districts of Songkhla -- since violence erupted in January 2004, according to Deep South Watch, which monitors the regional violence.