BANGKOK, March 14 (UPI) -- Bangkok was on security alert Wednesday against possible terrorist attack by Muslim separatists.
Police Maj. Gen. Adisorn Nonsi, acting head of the Bangkok Metropolitan Police Bureau, said the security alert affected areas with bus terminals, major shopping areas, government buildings and foreign embassies, according to The Bangkok Post.
Road checkpoints were also established, and vending stalls had been banned in main tourist areas.
The alert also was in force in the south of the country, where government forces are battling Muslim separatists, who launched a series of bombings, ambushes and arson attacks last month.
Wednesday is the anniversary of the founding in 1963 of the Nasional Malayu Pattani, or BRN, one of the separatist groups.
According to the report, intelligence sources said they had information the leader of the BRN, Masae Useng, had ordered attacks in the south to coincide with the anniversary.
Thailand military forces Wednesday were beginning patrols Wednesday along the border with Malaysia in a joint Thai-Malaysian operation and 20 companies of Thai Army Rangers had also been sent to the region.
Thailand is a key Southeast Asian ally of the United States, and hosted U.S. Air Force facilities during the Vietnam War. Relations between Washington and Bangkok, however, have frayed somewhat since the bloodless military coup last September that ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The coup brought about a suspension of U.S. military aid to Thailand, as stipulated by U.S. law.
