Small bombs hit Thai Muslim south, one dead

BANGKOK, Aug 31 (Reuters) Suspected militants set off small bombs inside and outside at least 18 banks in predominantly Muslim southern Thailand today, killing at least one person and wounding several, police and witnesses said.

The bombs were stashed in rubbish bins, hollowed out books and public phone booths at the banks in Yala province near the Malaysian border, they said. A retired civil servant was killed by a blast in the provincial capital of Yala in a rash of explosions similar to one across the three Muslim-majority provinces of the far south in June which killed at least two people.

An anonymous caller warned one bank it had been targetted, prompting a panic flight, minutes before an explosion, police said. More than 1,100 people have been killed in secessionist violence in the southern region since January 2004.

Many of today's bombs were set off by mobile telephones and at least one was defused before it could go off, police said.

The three provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani, where the majority of people are ethnic Malay, were a sultanate until annexed by overwhelmingly Buddhist Thailand a century ago.

REUTERS MS DS1140