Bangkok (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Two bombs went off last night in a southern province in Thailand while Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was in the area. The region had been hit by other attacks just a few days ago. The blasts occurred in a restaurant and a karaoke establishment in Slungai Kolok, a town in Narathiwat province on the border with Malaysia. One person was killed and 10 were injured.

The premier visited Narathiwat province yesterday in a bid to encourage the people and security forces to fight escalating violence in the zone; he slept in a Buddhist temple near the site where Islamic militants killed five soldiers and injured another two on Wednesday last.

The prime minister warned that southern residents of Indonesian and Malaysian origin constituted a threat to national security; for the first time, he used the word "terrorist" to define the Islamic militant groups operating in the south.

According to some observers, the attacks are the work of Islamic rebels operating together with criminal and smuggling gangs. The rebels – active in the Muslim-majority provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat – want secession from the rest of the country to join bordering Malaysia, which the region was once part of a century ago.

Since the beginning of last year, the clashes between the army and Islamic guerrillas in the south have claimed more than 1000 lives, including Buddhist monks.