Eight defence volunteers were injured in two improvised explosive device (IED) explosions in Sukhirin and Cho-airong districts of the southern province of Narathiwat this morning.
In the first incident, volunteers were on a routine foot patrol along a village road in Chuab sub-district of Cho-airong district, providing protection to teachers, when a roadside IED, placed at the base of a utility pole about 400 metres from their outpost, was detonated.
The explosion injured five volunteers. A brief exchange of gunfire ensued, before the insurgents escaped as reinforcements arrived. The five injured were rushed to the district hospital.
A bomb disposal team found and destroyed two more IEDs in the area.
Separately, in Sukhirin district, defence volunteers on motorcycle patrol in Kia sub-district were struck by a roadside IED, injuring three.
