Coordinated attacks kill 7 in Thailand

A string of at least 29 bombings and attacks by gunmen in parts of southern Thailand plagued by a Muslim insurgency killed at least seven people and wounded dozens more, officials said Monday.

The bombings were the first time insurgents struck all four of Thailand's Muslim-majority provinces at the same time, said army spokesman Col. Akara Thiprote.

The bombs, triggered by digital watches, exploded between 7:15 and 8 p.m. and targeted hotels, karaoke bars, power grids, commercial sites and schools. Two people were killed Sunday in a bombing at a karaoke parlor in the tourist town of Betong on the Malaysian border.

Elsewhere Sunday, three people of Chinese descent were gunned down in Pattani and another person was shot and killed in Narathiwat, Akara said. The killings _ believed to have been carried out by insurgents _ occurred as the country's Chinese community was celebrating its New Year Sunday.

The violence continued Monday morning when a homemade bomb killed a Thai army officer near his home in Yala province and wounded a 7-year-old boy, provincial police chief Maj. Gen. Phaitoon Chuchaiya said. In Narathiwat, a bomb explosion injured three policemen as their patrol neared a small railway station; seven others were wounded.

On Dec. 31, eight nearly simultaneous explosions hit Bangkok, although authorities immediately ruled out the possibility that southern insurgents were to blame.

Three people were killed and almost 40 wounded in those attacks, which the military blamed on politicians and renegade army officers loyal to exiled Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was overthrown during a bloodless coup in September and has since lived abroad.

Violence in the south has been escalating in recent months despite a major policy shift by the military-imposed government, which is trying to replace an earlier, iron-fisted approach in dealing with the rebels with a "hearts and minds" campaign.

More than 2,000 people have died in the provinces bordering Malaysia since the insurgency erupted in 2004, fueled by accusations of decades of misrule by the central government. The insurgents have not announced their goals, but they are believed to be fighting for a separate state imbued with radical Islamic ideology.

"We believe that the attacks were planned to cause division, create fear among the people. They want to show that they are still capable (of carrying out attacks)," he said, adding the military has sent additional troops to the region.

Two explosions tore through electricity transmitters in Pattani province, causing blackouts in several areas, said Pattani police Maj. Gen. Kokiat Wongworachart.

Five bombs exploded in the border town of Sungai Kolok, a popular destination for Malaysian and Singaporean tourists, said Maj. Gen. Yongyut Chareonwanit, the Narathiwat police chief. At least two schools in the province had been torched, he said. In the provincial capital of Pattani, police reported seven persons had been injured when a bomb went off in a car sales showroom.

Authorities said nine bombs went off in the Yala provincial capital and another seven in the border town of Betong, which also attracts tourists to its entertainment venues. A sizable number of Sunday's bombings were against karaoke parlors, which are regarded as decadent by the Islamic rebels.

Two bombings were also reported in neighboring Songkhla province.

Akara said that besides disrupting the New Year festivities, the rebels wanted to show the international community that the Thai government could not control the situation in southern Thailand, thus underlining the rebels' legitimacy as separatists.