Cops: Bangkok Bombing Was a 'Personal Feud'

Police don't elaborate, but a 28-year-old foreigner is in custody
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 29, 2015 10:24 AM CDT
Cops: Bangkok Bombing Was a 'Personal Feud'
Thai police remove evidence from an apartment on the outskirts of Bangkok today after arresting a suspect in an Aug. 17 bombing that killed 20 people.   (AP Photo/Sakchi Lalit)

A 28-year-old man believed to be one of possibly 10 or more people responsible for a deadly Aug. 17 bombing in Bangkok was arrested today, the BBC reports. According to the Guardian, 100 officers were involved in the arrest, which took place at a suburban apartment. CNN reports police found bomb-making supplies and a number of counterfeit passports, at least two of them Turkish, in the suspect's apartment. The attack at the Erawan Shrine—a destination popular with both Thai and Chinese tourists—is the worst bombing outside of war in Thailand's history, killing 20 people and wounding more than 120. CNN reports the suspect is also believed to be responsible for a second bombing Aug. 18 in which no one was harmed.

So far, police are hesitant to label the bombing a work of terrorism. "He is a foreigner, but it's unlikely that he is an international terrorist," the national police chief tells the BBC. "It's a personal feud." The chief says the suspect was angry on behalf of friends and family members but wouldn't clarify a motive any further. The Guardian reports some have suspected the bombing was in response to Thailand deporting 109 Uighurs—an oppressed Muslim minority—to China last month. According to CNN, the man arrested is not the main suspect seen in surveillance footage leaving a backpack at the shrine prior to the blast, and police are continuing to investigate. (More Bangkok stories.)

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