YALA, Feb 14 – A combined force of police and soldiers on Monday detained nine persons for their alleged involvement in Sunday’s powerful car bomb in a Yala municipality market which injured 18 people and set off a blaze that swept through 10 nearby shophouses and caused an estimated Bt10 million (US$330,000) in damage.

The detainees include two local muslim religious teachers, six teenage villagers and one juvenile who are currently being held at Yala’s special task force unit for further investigation, while police investigators are doing their profile records and taking swabs of the suspects’ DNA.

The names of the nine suspects have not been disclosed.

MCOT