Thai PM warns about more bomb attacks

Thailand's Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont on Thursday said the investigation into the New Year's Eve bombings in Bangkok is undergoing and urged the kingdom to prepare for more similar attacks.

Speaking at the National Legislation Assembly, the premier said "I would like to ask everyone in the country to prepare for life- threatening events like this for a while."

Surayud reaffirmed that the incidents were unrelated to the ongoing insurgency in the southernmost border provinces.

The prime minister said earlier that politicians who had lost privileges and benefits were behind the bomb attacks and the incidents were not connected to the southern violence.

As the government works to build a unified society and to conduct a fair general election, it seeks cooperation from every sector of the public in bringing peace to society and to prevent such incidents from occurring again, Surayud was quoted by the Thai News Agency as saying.

The prime minister said that intelligence officials believe the Sunday bombings were aimed at creating panic among the public, as well as causing death and damage to property.

"While the incidents may look similar to those in the deep South," Surayud said, "close investigation of the explosives used and timing mechanisms for the bombs shows no relationship to explosive devices so far used in the South."

"Most of the incidents were caused by ill-intentioned people and those who wanted to create unrest in Bangkok," he said.

Surayud added that investigators have received information as well as photographs from eyewitnesses at Sunday's scenes.

Meanwhile, Defense Minister Gen. Boonrawd Somtas said on Thursday that "men in uniform" were behind the New Year's Eve bombs in Bangkok which killed three and injured some 40, including nine foreigners.

The minister said it was "highly likely that the perpetrators are men in uniform."

"It's 90 percent sure that it is politically motivated and only a handful of groups of people have the potential to mount these attacks," he said.

He said it was unlikely that civilians would have the training to coordinate the eight small blasts across a wide urban area, and said that left "only either police or military."

Source: Xinhua