Bombings injure 5 in southern Thailand

Three bombing incidents injured five people on Friday night in Thailand's southern province of Narathiwat, part of the Deep South plagued with insurgent violence, local media reported.

The first two happened at about 6: 50 p.m. local time, with homemade bombs thrown at two restaurants in Sungai Kolok district, Bangkok Post quoted witnesses as saying.

The restaurants sustained slight damage, but no one was injured.

A third bomb in a steel box exploded later, which broke the windowpanes of a karaoke shop and wounded five staff members, including two females.

Perpetrators of the bombings are yet to be located.

Thailand's three Muslim, ethnic-Malay dominated southern border provinces - Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat, along with some parts of Songkhla province, have been recurrently rocked by separatist violence since January 2004.

Earlier on Thursday night, a Muslim policeman was reportedly killed in a drive-by shooting in Sri Sakhon district of Narathiwat, and police held separatists responsible.