One dead, 22 injured in bomb attack in Thai south
YALA, Thailand : At least one woman was killed and 22 people injured when a bomb exploded outside a crowded tea house late Friday in Thailand's restive Muslim-majority south, police said.
Officers suspected it was the work of Islamic militants as the targeted shop in Yala was popular among government officials and students.
The bomb was triggered by remote control, said Colonel Acra Tiproch, an army spokesman.
Among the injured, five people were seriously wounded.
The bomb went off inside a public phone booth located next to the tea shop, police said.
"Two men on a motorcycle placed a bomb inside the phone booth. Immediately after they left, the bomb exploded," said Police Colonel Poompetch Pipatpetchpoo.
Following the bomb attack, authorities cut off mobile phone services across Yala as militants often use the phones to set off bombs.
Earlier, two local government officials were killed and a third injured in a drive-by shooting in Narathiwat province, and two marines on patrol were hurt in a roadside bomb attack in the same area.
More than 2,200 people have been killed and thousands wounded in separatist violence that erupted in Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala provinces in January 2004.
The violence has escalated despite peace-building measures by the military-installed government, which came to power following a coup in September 2006.
- AFP /ls
__NOTOC__
One person was killed and at least 28 injured in a bomb attack today by suspected Muslim insurgents at a crowded tea shop in southern Thailand.

The bomb, placed inside a bag in a telephone booth near the shop in the provincial capital Yala, exploded at about 8 p.m. local time (1300 UTC).

The dead woman was a 24-year-old Buddhist, police said. The religions of the other victims were not immediately known. Among the injured, at least five were hurt seriously.

"Two men on a motorcycle placed a bomb inside the phone booth. Immediately after they left, the bomb exploded," Police Colonel Poompetch Pipatpetchpoo was quoted as saying by Agence France-Presse.

Another officer said the bombing came at a peak hour for the tea-shop trade in southern Thailand.

"The assailants seized an opportunity to stage an attack when police and soldiers were taking a rest," Police Lieutenant Colonel Jirasit Lomae was quoted as saying by Associated Press. He said security personnel had been standing guard at a trade fair in the province.

===Drive-by shooting, roadside bomb, schools burned===
In neighboring Narathiwat Province, a government official and another man were killed and a third injured in a drive-by shooting.

Hami Wani, 45-year-old deputy headman of Ban Salo village, was fatally shot at around 1 p.m. (0600 UTC) as he was driving home. An assistant was also killed, and another injured.

Also in Narathiwat, two Royal Thai Army soldiers were injured in a roadside bombing. The soldiers were part of a six-man teacher-protection unit.

Overnight in Krong Pinang, Yala Province, a school was burned by a group of around 20 men who came onto the grounds and overpowered 10 volunteers assigned to guard the school. It was the second school burned in an arson attack in a week in Yala.

===Train service resumes===
The State Railway of Thailand resumed train service today on its southern lines after repairs were made to tracks that were sabotaged earlier in the week. Security has been beefed up, with plainclothes and uniformed officers on trains, in stations and patrolling the railbeds and trestles. Railway officials said ridership was down following the attacks.