Thailand Tightens Security After Attackers Kill 14 People

(Bloomberg) -- Thailand tightened security after at least 14 people were killed in the restive deep south in one of the region’s worst attacks in recent years.

Assailants targeted two checkpoints in Yala province just before midnight Tuesday, in an assault that left another five people injured. Police said they suspected insurgents were responsible and that surveillance had been intensified at other potential targets, such as tourist attractions.

Bombings and gun attacks periodically flare in the southern provinces of Narathiwat, Yala, Pattani and Songkhla, where separatists have fought for an independent state since Thailand formally annexed the autonomous Malay-Muslim sultanate in 1902.

But the scale of the deaths Tuesday came as a shock for some officials in the Asian nation. The attackers sprayed gunfire at the checkpoints and were trying to provoke unrest, according to government and police statements.

“We’ll bring the perpetrators to justice,” Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha said on Twitter on Wednesday.

The Thai economy relies on tourism and major bombings or attacks can temporarily unsettle holidaymakers planning visits. On some estimates, the industry accounts for about a fifth of the economy.

--With assistance from Natnicha Chuwiruch.

To contact the reporter on this story: Suttinee Yuvejwattana in Bangkok at suttinee1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sunil Jagtiani at sjagtiani@bloomberg.net, Ruth Pollard

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.