More bomb blasts in Bangkok

Thai tensions rise after blasts wound dozens

13 hours ago

BANGKOK (AFP) — Grenade attacks targeting Thai anti-government
protesters injured at least 51 people Sunday, stoking tensions as
police struggled to end a paralysing blockade of Bangkok's airports.

The blasts came hours before thousands of supporters of the kingdom's
embattled administration were due to hold their own mass rally in the
centre of the capital, creating another potential flashpoint.

The five-day outbreak of civil unrest has caused mounting concern
among foreign governments, with around 100,000 frustrated travellers
trapped in the self-styled "Land of Smiles".

Police have held off launching an assault on the protesters occupying
two Bangkok airports amid fears of a repeat of political violence that
left two people dead last month, and concerns that more bloodshed
could spark a coup.

In the latest violence , attackers lobbed a grenade at Government
House, the prime minister's cabinet offices which the People's
Alliance for Democracy (PAD) occupied in August. Emergency services
said 49 people were wounded.

"Whatever happens, we will fight, we will not step back," senior PAD
leader and retired general Chamlong Srimuang later told reporters at
the site.

Hours later, a blast hit outside the small domestic Don Mueang
airport, injuring two passers-by, police said. A grenade was also
found at the offices of a party in the ruling coalition but did not go
off.

Grenade attacks earlier this month at Government House killed two
protesters and prompted the PAD to launch what it called its "final
battle" against the government last Sunday.

Demonstrators took control of the main Suvarnabhumi international
airport on Tuesday and Don Mueang, which is smaller and handles
domestic flights, on Wednesday, cutting air links with the rest of the
world.

Police sent 2,000 officers to cordon off Suvarnabhumi on Saturday,
while the PAD's militia have set up barricades of tyres, wooden stakes
and razor wire. They have also armed themselves with golf clubs,
sticks and other weapons.

Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat is now governing from the northern
city of Chiang Mai, amid tensions with the army in a country that has
seen 18 coups since the end of absolute monarchy in 1932.

The royalist PAD accuses Somchai's government of being a corrupt
puppet for exiled former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in
a coup in 2006. Thaksin is the current premier's brother-in-law.

Supporters of the group -- a loose coalition which wears yellow to
show its loyalty to the king and has backing from elements in the
military, palace and urban middle classes -- refuses to end its siege
until Somchai quits.

Separately, a pro-government group known as the "Red Shirts", due to
the clothes they wear to differentiate themselves from their rivals,
said it hoped to gather up to 10,000 people in Bangkok on Sunday.

The site of the rally is just four kilometres (2.5 miles) from the
protesters at Government House. Sporadic clashes have broken out
between pro- and anti-government groups, with one person dying in a
fight in Chiang Mai this week.

Fears of large scale clashes, either between police and protesters or
the so-called Red Shirts and Yellow Shirts, have precluded a decisive
end to the crisis.

Somchai on Friday dismissed the national police chief for failing to
take on the demonstrators, whose actions have cost Southeast Asia's
second largest economy billions of dollars.

Rumours of a coup swept the country after Somchai rejected calls from
the army chief to call snap elections, but General Anupong Paojinda
said military action would not solve the rifts in Thai society.

Frustrated tourists meanwhile struggled to escape Thailand through a
Vietnam War-era naval base as airport authorities, where a handful of
flights have been operating since Friday.

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said Sunday that the
situation was "very frustrating for us and it's very frustrating for
those stranded Australians."

"They have killed tourism in this country, the authorities should go
do something," said tourist Danny Mosaffi, 57, from New York City.
"Nobody is going to come here."