Summary
In the reporting period April-May 2015, there were 44 incidents with casualties. The total number of victims was 127 (injured 93 and killed 34). For the next two months, the number of incidents may decrease due to an upcoming peace talk and a Ramadan ceasefire.
Spate of Bomb Attacks in Yala
On Thursday, 14 May at around 7:30 P.M., explosions occurred in fourteen locations around Muang district, Yala province. These surprise attacks did not result in any deaths, but left 18 injured. All the bombing spots were random and it appeared that some of them did not intend to attack people directly. The bomb attacks continued on the morning of the next day and were ongoing in Muang district until Saturday, 16 May; however, further injuries were reported in only three other incidents, which resulted in a total of three injured, one from each location. The first of the three locations was a tea room around the entrance of Supranee road near Trimitr Temple in Muang district. The tea shop was attacked by a bomb thrown from two insurgents on a motorcycle at approximately 6:00 A.M. on Friday. Another bomb was detonated from inside a refrigerator in a grocery shop on Soi 12 Pangmuang 4 road at about 7:09 A.M. while the third bomb detonated at 7:33 A.M. near a T-junction in tambon Sateng-nok health promotion hospital. The series of bomb attacks ended with a total of twenty one injured, but no fatalities.
[Photo No Longer Available, Please Refer to Map on hdff.org]*Locations for which sufficient data does not exist to pinpoint an exact location are marked with a star, indicating general vicinity in which the incident occurred.
Firearm Attacks Responsible for Most Fatalities
From April until May 2015, the highest death rate came from gun attacks, while bomb explosions had a more destructive effect, causing higher injury numbers. Most of the targets in bombings appeared to favour structures such as buildings and utility poles. The application of firearm attacks was varied; and included ambushing, following targets’ vehicles on a motorcycle for clear shots, or spraying bullets on targets.
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Burned After Shooting Incidents
One incident in April and another incident in May showed irregular violence occurred to victims. At about 6:00 P.M. on Sunday 12 April, insurgents raided a house in Norm Klao village in Sukhirin district, Narathiwat province. A man and his wife were shot dead in their house and their bodies were burnt after that. On Wednesday 6 May, another incident occurred at approximately 4:30 P.M. Militants sprayed bullets at a car, killing a couple and then burning them in Tan Yong village Tambon Ba Cho Bannangsata district of Yala province. No significant evidence was found in those fires and both incidents are assumed to frighten civilians in the area.
Males and Security Officers are Main Victims
Statistics from April – May 2015 showed that victims from all incidents within these two months were overwhelmingly male. In comparison to female victims, males were approximately four times more likely to be victims. The largest number of casualties was found to be security officers. Security officers in this report consist of several security groups namely, military, police, and defence volunteers due to a combined security system in the three Southern Border Provinces (SBP). Most of the security officers based in the SBP’s were male and this fact may affect the casualty rate since security officers were the largest proportion of victims.
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For further information on the insurgency-related attacks, please consult the incident map on the HDFF website. http://hdff.org/ or info@hdff.org
To request the original report complete with pictures, please e-mail us at info@hdff.org.