Thailand's Army Commander-in-Chief and the chairman of the powerful military-led Council for National Security, Gen. Sonthi Boonyaratkalin, said Monday that more troops will be deployed in the country's far south in response to more than two dozens of bombings and arson attacks Sunday night.

Six people were killed and more than 50 wounded in the wave of coordinated bombings, arson attacks and shootings across the four southernmost provinces of Songkhla, Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, said army spokesman Col. Akara Thiproj. Fresh attacks that continued into early Monday morning have killed another person, bringing the death toll to at least seven.

In the hardest-hit province of Yala, where nearly 20 bombings were reported on Sunday night, the provincial authorities ordered people to stay at home in the wake of attacks.

However, state forces responsible for security in the four affected provinces will not place the region under a curfew or a state of emergency, according to the Thai News Agency.

Sonthi said he had ordered reinforcement of security forces in the area but it was not necessary to declare a state of emergency in the area.

The army chief, who led the Sept. 19 coup last year that ousted then premier Thaksin Shinawatra and installed an interim government, held a meeting with top security officials late Monday noon following the Sunday night attacks.

Sonthi's remarks echoed that of Thai Interior Minister Aree Wongaraya, who told journalists before leaving for Yala province Monday morning that the authorizes were able to control the situation without imposing a curfew in the region.

Aree said that authorities had received early warnings about imminent attacks in the region but it had been difficult for security personnel to prevent all the attacks due to the secrecy in the insurgents' operation.

The three southern border provinces -- Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani -- remained in state of martial law, which was imposed all around the country since last September's coup d'etat, but lifted in late January this year in over half of the land -- 41 provinces, including Bangkok.

Meanwhile, at an emergency meeting of security agencies at the Internal Security Operations Command in Bangkok Monday morning, chaired by Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont, a decision was reached that the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Center will deploy 88 teams to carry out psychological warfare among villagers in the three southern border provinces following the latest coordinated bomb attacks.

The 88 teams would be in charge of giving advice to villagers so that villagers and religious leaders would also be invited to help in the work., according to newsnetwork The Nation.

Source: Xinhua