Three Thai soldiers injured by landmine near Cambodian border

Three Thai soldiers were injured, one of them seriously, by a landmine, suspected to have been laid recently by Cambodian forces. Their 14-member unit was on routine patrol on Mount 481, near the Thai-Cambodian border at Chong Bok in Nam Yuen district of the north-eastern province of Ubon Ratchathani on Wednesday.

The injured soldiers were rushed to a military hospital in Warin Chamrap district. An army source said that one of them, Pvt Thanapat, sustained a serious injury to one of his legs, which required amputation.

The source also said that the landmine had been identified as Russian-made PMN-2 anti-personnel mine, which is thought to have been laid recently, because the area was completely demined.

On Tuesday, a Thai demining team had found four similar landmines in the same area.

According to a military report, the PMN-2 landmine weighs about 15.9 ounces and contains 4.1 ounces of COM P-B explosive. The mine is designed to maim, rather than to kill, and is made of plastic, to make it difficult to detect.

Lt-Gen Boonsin Padklang, commander of the Second Region Army, visited the three injured soldiers at the military hospital today, to offer them moral support and to make sure that they are being properly taken care of and compensated.