UPDATE 2 - Thai police seeking Muslim insurgent arrest for blasts

UPDATES TO ADD BACKGROUND

By CS Thana

BANGKOK (AA) - Thai police are seeking the arrest of a suspect they say is part of a network that carried out last week's bomb attacks across the country's south which left four people dead.

The warrant is the second issued in connection with the wave of attacks, after an oil rig worker was arrested Sunday.

Police Gen. Srivara Ransibrahmanakul told reporters Tuesday that police had forwarded the warrant request after finding the DNA of a known insurgent on a diffused bomb.

"The DNA matched that of a suspect known to be operating with insurgent networks in Narathiwat in 2004," he said.

Narathiwat is one of three provinces affected by a violent Muslim insurgency in the country's south.

The Thai junta has suggested political opponents were responsible, while police are prioritizing the theory that the attacks were by southern Muslim insurgents operating beyond their traditional powerbases of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat.

The warrant was approved by the Nakhon Si Thammarat military court, which deals with cases relating to national security.

Ransibrahmanakul said that the arrest of the suspect "was key" in unlocking the network that carried out the attacks.

On Sunday, an oil rig worker from northern Chiang Mai province working in the Gulf of Thailand was arrested on suspicion of involvement in the attacks, after he was held for an arson attack on a supermarket in the southern province of Nakhon Sri Thammarat.

Provincial Police Chief Wanchai Ekpornpit said that police had “clear evidence of his involvement”.

Last Thursday and Friday, a total of 13 bombs exploded in four tourist provinces in the upper part of Thailand’s southern peninsula killing four people and injuring 35.

The explosions took place in what Thai people call the “Buddhist south”, in opposition to the “Muslim south” -- hundreds of kilometers (miles) further south near the Malaysian border.