2015 Bangkok Erawan Shrine Bombing ---
tags: thailand, Bombs and IED ---, Shopping Mall Market ---, tourist targeted, Mideast or Muslim Perpetrators ---(Turkish)

August 17, 2015 20 killed 125 injured 1 suspect arrested 2015 Bangkok Erawan Shrine Bombing a bombing took place inside the Erawan Shrine in the Pathum Wan District, Bangkok, Thailand which was filled with foreign tourists, killing 20 people and injuring 125. Surveillance footage showed a suspect leaving a backpack at the scene shortly before the explosion. The next day in a connected attack, another pipe bomb was thrown from a bridge near a boat pier. It exploded in the water but caused no injuries. The suspect was believed to be working with the help of others. One suspect was arrested holed up in a room filled with bomb making supplies. He appeared to be a Turkish speaking foreigner from Turkey, part of a human smuggling ring. As he claimed it was a personal revenge attack, authorities ruled out the obvious possibilities it might have been the work of international terrorists, or affiliated with the cause of Uyghur nationalists who have plagued China and bordering nations with deadly attacks. This attacks was preceded by February 2015 when two bombs exploded on the Ratchaprasong Skywalk outside the nearby Siam Paragon shopping mall, injuring three people in a politically motivated terrorist attack, and in April 2015, a car bomb exploded in Ko Samui, injuring seven.

Previous 2006 "mental illness terrorist" attack

In the early hours of 21 March 2006, the shrine was vandalised by a Thai man believed to be mentally ill. After smashing the statue with a hammer, 27-year-old Thanakorn Pakdeepol was beaten to death by angry bystanders. Two street sweepers who worked for the Pathum Wan district office were arrested and charged with the fatal beating. Witnesses said Thanakorn stood on the base of the statue with a large hammer in his hands, and smashed the Brahma hollow statue to pieces. The deity's four-faced head, torso, six arms and weapons were fragmented. Only part of the lap and base of the statue were left intact.

aug 29 arrest Suspect in Thai blast seems Turkish [muslim] had bomb-making material, police say CNN Explosion in Bangkok. A woman prays at the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok, Thailand, on Wednesday, August 19. Thai monks led prayers for the reopening of the Bangkok shrine where a bomb killed 20 people on Monday, August 17. Hide Caption. Picture shows Turkish passport, man looks turkish, everybody thinks he's turkish but govt says they can't say that for sure. Govt says he was targeting just one person so it wasn't international terrorism [nonsense, that's just his silly cover story of course nobody makes a bomb factory just to hurt one person]

*Reference

*Tags:

Ball bearings
Bomb factory - found in two apartments, means big operation
International terrorists: usually claim responsibility quickly Thai authorities on Thursday said the attack was "unlikely" to have been the work of an international terror group.
Muslim - 1st arrested suspect is apparently Turkish muslim foreigner
Personal Revenge - given as motive but probably cover story. You don't have two bomb factories to hurt one enemy.
Radio remote control - sophisticated like Boston Marathon indicates international training
Red shirt movement - Thai authorities continue to hint that there could be "internal elements" to the bomb, and seemed to suggest that the Red Shirt movement supporting exiled former leader Thaksin Shinawatra has been behind the attack.
Sophistication - bomb factory has packaged brand new ball bearings, radio remote controls, fertilizer, gunpowder, similar to bombs used by international Islamist terrorists or trained like OK city bombings (Americans trained by Ramsi Yousef), 1993 WTC, Boston Marathon
Terrorist - government ruled out international terrorists.
Turkey - suspect has Turkish passports, looks Turkish, needs Turkish translator, muslim nation

*Sources

BBC

Bangkok bomb: CCTV timeline released
20 August 2015
Bangkok bombing: Where is the investigation heading?
20 August 2015
The victims of the Bangkok blast
19 August 2015
The messy theories behind the Thai bomb 20 August 2015

Thai culture is Buddhist and values religious tolerance. Such a religious location is not the kind of target any Thai rebel would choose, which suggests to me that those behind this attack may not be Thai. in the past where someone might throw a grenade that injures a few people to get their political message across, but that is where it has generally ended. Muslim separatist conflict in southern Thailand, but the political violence has been limited to the three southern provinces - never the capital. unhappy that Thailand deported Uighur refugees back to China, where the minority complain of persecution, and might have wanted to punish the Thai state, the thinking goes. But we don't know enough at this point to support this theory
Bangkok bomb could hit tourism
19 August 2015
In pictures: Bangkok shrine reopens
19 August 2015
Video CCTV of Bangkok bombing suspects
19 August 2015
What do we know about Bangkok bomb?
20 August 2015
Why do people visit Bangkok's Erawan shrine?
18 August 2015
2015 Ratchaprasong bombing A bomb explodes near the Erawan Hindu Shrine in Bangkok, Thailand, killing at least 19 people and injuring 123 others. No one has claimed responsibility. Thai Society president Songvut Manoonpong said parties opposing the Thai military government were likely responsible. (Sky News) (Reuters) (Bangkok Post) (NZ Herald) (Al Jazeera English Online)
Thailand Police Arrest Wall Street Journal police had invited a Turkish translator to help question the ...
Bangkok bomb: Thai police say it was personal revenge, not international terrorism, arrested man part of people-smuggling group The Guardian UK aug 30 authorities believed the man was part of an organised crime group which sold counterfeit documents to illegal immigrants. “They [the gang] are unsatisfied with police arresting illegal entrants,” he told Thailand’s Channel 3. “It’s a network that fakes nationalities and sends them [illegal migrants] on to third countries,” hinted on Saturday at the motive for the attack, saying the arrested man was “taking personal revenge for his comrades”, without giving further details. “It’s unlikely to be terrorism. It’s not an international terrorist act,” s apartment was raided after police listened to mobile phone calls made around the shrine on the night of the attack. Police and residents said the suspect had rented four apartments on the same floor in the block.
Bangkok Bomb: Thai police name Adem Karadag as suspect arrested over blast that killed 20 The Independent‎ UK Aug 29 We don't know if he is Turkish or not." suspect 'did not act alone'

Thai police look into Turkish connection in Bangkok blast ... Reuters aug 27 Thai police said on Thursday they were looking at arrivals of Turkish nationals in the days before bomb blast
Bangkok bombing: Police arrest Turkish suspect over shrine ... Daily Mirror aug 29 police believe Karadag is Turkish

*Wikipedia

2015 Bangkok bombing

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Coordinates:

13.74444°N 100.54056°E

2015 Bangkok bombing
Erawan Shrine after the explosion
2015 Bangkok bombing (Bangkok)
Location	Ratchaprasong intersection, Bangkok,Thailand
Date	17 August 2015 18:55 ICT (UTC+07:00)
Attack type	Mass murder, bombing
Weapon	TNT
Deaths	20^[1]
Non-fatal injuries	125^[1]
Victims	Thai nationals, foreign tourists
Perpetrators	Grey Wolves (suspected)

On 17 August 2015, a bombing took place inside the Erawan Shrine at theRatchaprasong intersection in Pathum Wan District, Bangkok, Thailand,^[2]^[3] killing 20 people and injuring 125.^[1] Surveillance footage showed a suspect leaving a backpack at the scene shortly before the explosion. As of 30 August 2015, the suspect in the surveillance footage had not been arrested and no group or individual has claimed responsibility for the attack.^[4]^[5]

[hide]

Prior incidents[edit]

Prior to this bombing incident, there were two other bombings in Thailand in the same year. In February 2015, two bombs exploded on the Ratchaprasong Skywalk outside the nearby Siam Paragon shopping mall, injuring three people. The attack was believed to have been politically motivated.^[6] In April 2015, a car bomb exploded in Ko Samui, injuring seven.^[7]

Attack[edit]

The Ratchaprasong intersection and the Erawan Shrine in May 2015

On 17 August 2015, at 18:55 ICT (11:55 UTC), a bomb exploded inside the grounds of theErawan Shrine, near the busy Ratchaprasong Intersection in Bangkok's city centre.^[8]^[9] TheRoyal Thai Police said that 3 kilograms (6.6 lb) of TNT had been stuffed in a pipe and left under a bench near the outer rim of the grounds surrounding the shrine, and that an electronic circuit suspected to have been used in the attack was found 30 metres (98 ft) from the scene.^[2]^{[not in citation given]}

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.^[10] The attacks are thought to have been targeting Thailand's tourism and economy.^[2]

Second incident[edit]

In a separate attack in Bangkok, an explosive device was thrown from a bridge near a boat pier shortly after 13:00 ICT on 18 August 2015, but it caused no injuries. The device, possibly a grenade, appeared to have been thrown at the busy Sathon pier in Bangkok but landed in water where it exploded. The district's deputy police chief said, "If it did not fall in the water then it certainly would have caused injuries." Some damage was done to the bridge.^[2]

Victims[edit]

Deaths by nationality^[11]
Nation	Deaths
Thailand	6
Malaysia	5
China	5
Hong Kong^[a]	2
Indonesia	1
Singapore	1
Total	20
Some victims had multiple citizenships. Counts are based on preliminary data.

Most of the victims of the explosion were tourists visiting the shrine.^[12] The Royal Thai Police reported that 20 people died and 125 had been injured.^[1]

The dead included six Thais,^[11] five Malaysians,^[13] five mainland Chinese,^[14] two from Hong Kong (including one British national resident in Hong Kong),^[12] one Indonesian, and one Singaporean.^[11]In addition, citizens of Japan, Malaysia, the Maldives, Oman, the Philippines, Qatar and Taiwan were among those injured.^[12]

All of the victims from Malaysia,^[15] China, Hong Kong,^[16] Indonesia^[17] and Singapore^[18] were ethnic Chinese.

Suspects[edit]

Investigators said they were "certain" that a man shown leaving a backpack at the scene of the explosion was responsible for the blast. The security camera footage, which has been broadcast internationally, shows the man in shorts and a yellow T-shirt taking off a dark-coloured backpack while sitting on a bench and then standing up, putting the backpack underneath the bench and walking away while looking at his phone.^[19] The suspect likely had arrived by tuk-tukfrom an alley near Hua Lamphong.^[20]

Some newspapers alleged that the man captured on security footage at the Erawan Shrine bomb attack was named by authorities as Mohamad Museyin, and that investigators are focusing their efforts on budget Bangkok hotels in the Sathorn Road area where they believe the suspect stayed.^[21] However, this information was quickly dismissed by Thai authorities.^[22]

Thailand's chief of police said the attack was carried out by a network and issued a sketch of the suspect. Police are also saying that two other people seen in the same footage were being treated as suspects.^[19]

A taxi driver later confirmed that he picked up the suspect, and described him as "not in a hurry. He seemed to be calm, like a regular customer, and not Thai. He also spoke in an unclear language on the way."^[23]

On 29 August 2015, police arrested a 28 year old man in connection to the bombing. He is not believed to have been the bomber but is suspected of involvement. He is thought to be a Turkish national with several passports found in his apartment along with bomb-making components.^[24]^[25] Although, the Turkish embassy in Bangkok denied that the bomb suspect arrested by Thai police and troops on Saturday is a citizen of Turkey.^[26]

The bombing is suspected to have been carried out by the Pan-Turkic neo-fascist Turkish ultra-nationalist organization Grey Wolves in retaliation for to Thailand's deportation of Uyghur terrorist suspects back to China instead of allowing them to travel to Turkey for asylum. A Turkish man, Adem Karadag, was arrested by the Thai police in connection with the bombing after Turkish passports and bomb-making materials were found in his apartment. The Grey Wolves are described by the media as a terrorist group and became famous for their assassinations and killings of journalists, liberals, and leftists in Turkey, their member Mehmet Ali Ağca's assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II, and their involvement in the Nagorno-Karabakh War and the Chechen war where there are Muslim and Turkic populations. Their aim is the unification of all Muslim Turkic peoples into one state spanning from Central Asia to the Balkans.^[27]^[28]^[29]^[30]^[31]^[32]^[33]^[34]^[35]^[36]^[37]

Reaction[edit]

Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha called it the "worst-ever attack" on his country, saying, "there have been minor bombs or just noise, but this time they aim for innocent lives. They want to destroy our economy, our tourism."^[2]

Twenty-three nations issued travel advisories for visitors to Thailand in the wake of the bombing.^[38]

Notes[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 2015 Bangkok bombing.

Jump up^ Includes one British national resident in Hong Kong^[12]

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2015 Bangkok Erawan Shrine Bombing

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