Explosive ordnance team detonates IED hidden in roadside in southern Thailand

An explosive ordnance team disposed of an IED planted along a road in southern Thailand.

Footage shows the specialists detonating the explosive that was hidden in dense thickets on a road shoulder in Songkhla province on July 23 afternoon. The operation was conducted after two policemen were injured in an IED blast during patrols in the area near a biomass power plant earlier in the morning.

Police said the second bomb was discovered just a few metres away from the first explosive, and was believed to be planted by separatist insurgents.

Police Forensic Science Center 9 were at the scene to collect evidence.

The damaged police truck, which had its bumper, bonnet, windscreen, and doors struck by shrapnel, was towed back to the Thepha Police Station.

The incident comes just a day after six officers were injured by another bomb in southern Thailand.

The cops were conducting patrols when a bomb was allegedly detonated along the highway in Nong Chik district in Pattani province on July 22.

The six injured policemen were taken to a hospital, while access along Highways 42 and 43 was restricted following the incident.

Islamic separatist terror attacks target the three southernmost provinces of Thailand - Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat - next to the border with Mulsim neighbors Malaysia. Thai state employees and infrastructure are often hit while attacks on civilians are rare.

Officials believe the conflict dates to a deal in 1909 that the British Empire struck to incorporate the Muslim region into the Siamese mainland.

The region's culture is more similar to Malaysia and dramatically different to Buddhist Thais causing decades of tension that lead to the emergence of separatist groups fighting for independence in the 1960s.

The struggle has continued ever since with more than 7,344 people killed and 13,641 injured between January 2004 and March 2022.

The British Foreign & Commonwealth Office warns against all but essential travel to the region while Canada's government warns its nationals to 'avoid all travel' to the three provinces.