2 die, 80 hurt in Thailand blasts

At least two people were killed and over 80 injured in a spate of explosions in southern Thailand since Sunday night.

Two people died in an explosion which ripped through the departure lounge of the international airport at Hat Yai, a provincial capital some 800 km from Bangkok, late Sunday.

Two other explosions which occurred around the same time --at a department store of the French-owned Carrefour chain and in a motorcycle parked outside Green World Palace hotel in the nearby town of Songkhla—left over 80 people injured, some seriously.

On Monday morning, four Thai soldiers were injured, one of them seriously, when a bomb exploded at a car park in Yala province, some 1,000

km south of Bangkok.

Though predominantly Buddhist, three southern provinces of Thailand--Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat --have Muslim majorities, and violence blamed on separatist insurgents from these areas have caused at least 800 deaths since January 2004.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who recently promised to take a more moderate approach in the region after accusations of a brutal crackdown or insurgents, on Monday pledged more troops for the strife-torn region.