Nine dead, 100 wounded in Thai bomb blasts

A series of bomb blasts killed nine people and injured at least 100 in the south of Thailand on Saturday.

The explosions were the latest in a wave of violence in the mostly Buddhist country blamed on Islamic separatists, said commentators.

Three of the blasts went off in the city of Yala, in a commercial district crowded with lunchtime shoppers. Officials think the bombs were planted in vehicles. There was a separate smaller explosion in Pattani province.

Attacks in the four regions closest to majority-Muslim Malaysia happen almost daily and normally target army, police or other authority figures.

Thai officials have imposed emergency rule in southern provinces in an attempt to quell the unrest. That has led to further claims that the military is discriminating against Muslims.

More than 5,000 people have been killed since a decades-old separatist rebellion resurfaced in 2004.

The region was part of an independent Malay Muslim sultanate until 1909 when it was annexed by Thailand.

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