http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/sep/8/islamists-causing-havoc-in-the-south/BANGKOK — Each morning Buddhist monks in saffron robes silently stroll through Thailand’s three southern provinces, collecting alms for the poor - as troops with assault rifles walk alongside.
However, the armed guards are sometimes not enough to protect Thailand’s most visible symbols of the dominant Buddhist religion from Islamist terrorists determined to bomb their way to an independent nation.
A roadside bomb exploded Aug. 23 in Pattani province, injuring one monk, nine soldiers and three civilians, as the monks were returning to their temple from their morning mission.
Fifteen soldiers were guarding the monks when a bomber detonated the remote-controlled explosives hidden in an 11-pound cooking-gas cylinder in an untended pushcart that had been used to sell fried chicken.
The same day, in neighboring Yala province, a bomb at a bridge killed two soldiers on a motorcycle. Scattered ambushes the next day added five more to the death toll.
They are among the latest casualties in a seven-year long escalation of a Muslim separatist war that has claimed 4,700 lives since 2004. Another 9,000 have been injured.
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http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/sep/8/islamists-causing-havoc-in-the-south/
