UPDATE 2 - Thai police claim knowledge of those behind bombings

UPDATES TO EDIT HEADLINE, ADD SECOND GRAF

By CS Thana and Max Constant

BANGKOK (AA) - Thai police say they have an idea who was responsible for a spate of bomb attacks Thursday and Friday that killed four people across the country's south and injured over 30.

Despite initial suggestions Friday, the country's military junta is now remaining tightlipped.

Police Gen. Pongsapat Pongcharoen told reporters Saturday that "police have strong leads and a good idea" of who was behind the deadly attacks which struck at tourist sites and government offices across five provinces.

"We hope to have good news [about suspects and motives] over the next one or two days," he said. "All relevant agencies are working together to accomplish this."

Pongsapat denied reports that two men had been arrested and detained, saying the reports "lacked credibility".

"We have only witnesses who came in to make statements of their own free will, no person or suspect has so far been detained."

The ruling junta had previously expressed little knowledge of the motivation and the group behind the bombings, which struck five sites in the south over an 18-hour period.

Junta chief-cum Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said Friday that the people behind the bombings intended to “create chaos and confusion” because “the situation and the economy were being stabilized” after the "successful Aug. 7 referendum, however other junta leaders have been more reserved about linking the violence to the political opposition.

“Politics could be one cause... but I cannot confirm it,” the Bangkok Post on Saturday quoted Deputy-Prime Minister-cum-Defense Minister Gen. Prawit Wongsuwan as saying.

The Aug. referendum saw the passing of a draft charter written under close supervision of the military regime by 61.35 percent of the voters. The number of "yes" votes was especially high in the Buddhist southern provinces affected by the bombings, however "no" votes and abstentions prevailed in the deep south Muslim regions affected by insurgency.

The initial blast occurred Thursday afternoon in Trang city, 700 kilometers (435 miles) south of the capital, Bangkok, killing one person. Four bombs exploded in Hua Hin, 200 kilometers south of Bangkok, on Thursday and Friday, killing two persons, and two bombs exploded in Surat Thani on Friday morning killing one person.

There were also more minor explosions on the tourist island of Phuket, 650 kilometers south of Bangkok, and in the coastal province of Phang-nga.

All of the areas struck are popular with foreign and local visitors, particularly on Friday, which marked the beginning of a long weekend in honor of the birthday of the queen of Thailand. The royal family has a palace in Hua Hin, the city the most affected by the bombings, but neither the ageing king or the queen -- both hospitalized in Bangkok -- have visited the area for more than a year.

Any suspicion, however, that the campaign was waged by political opponents of the junta -- a major suspect being its nemesis, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra -- is weakened by the degree of sophistication of the recent bombings.

The bombings were well coordinated, spread over four provinces, and used powerful devices. The only violent action which can be tied to politics since the May 2014 coup was the throwing of a grenade on the parking lot of a justice court in March 2015, which did little but damaged a car.

Shinawatra was unseated in a 2006 coup, and the government of his sister, Yingluck, deposed in the 2014 coup, which brought the junta to power. Thaksin has lived in exile since 2008.

The other main hypothesis is an extension of the Malay Muslim insurgency which has destabilized the three southernmost province of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat for decades, and intensified in 2004, from which over 6,500 people have been killed and more than 11,000 injured.

Gen. Danai Kritmetahwee, chief of the Thanarat Infantry Camp in Hua Hin, has told local media that all mobile phone SIM cards used in the Hua Hin bombing were bought in Malaysia, where many of the leaders in the southern insurgency are thought to live.

The same officer, however, has said that the way the bombs were assembled was very different from the method used by southern insurgents.

On Friday, deputy premier Wongsuwan dismissed the Sim card link.

“This motive can be discarded. I confirm this is not the case,” he told the Bangkok Post.

Southern insurgent have mostly waged attacks in the three southernmost provinces, but there were bombings in Hat Yai, in 2006 and 2014, and on the tourist island of Koh Samui in April 2015, which were attributed to them.

Thai TV channel Nation TV reported Friday that two suspects were arrested in Hua Hin and were being interrogated.

Prior to denying the arrests Saturday, officials had refused to give any further details.