BANGKOK, Thailand—“Red shirt” protesters have used guns and grenades against the Thai military in vicious street fighting on Saturday that has left 12 people dead and over 500 injured in Bangkok.
Local media has reported that red shirt protesters used military weapons and homemade bombs to repel the military’s attempt to remove them from one of their two rally bases established in the Thai capital.
From 1 p.m. local time, onwards the military used batons, tear gas and fired rubber bullets in their action against the protesters at Phan Fah bridge and Rajdumnoen Road in Bangkok’s historic quarters.
The red shirts have been based there since mid-March when they first made their demands that Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva dissolve Parliament and to make way for fresh elections.
As Saturday’s street violence escalated, the army, media and the Thai PM, says that the red shirts responded with weapons which included M79 grenade launchers.
The Bangkok Post reported that red shirts used a gas cylinder as a bomb which wounded around 50 soldiers and that weapon fire from the red shirts ranks wounded 50-60 soldiers near one intersection.
The newspaper also reported that hand grenades were hurled at soldiers and that the sound of machine gun fire was heard.
A government spokesmen stated that a military helicopter flying over the area was fired upon and one soldier was subsequently wounded.
The red shirts—formally known as the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD)—have countered government claims by saying they have been fired on by the military.
After several hours of fighting, the army was forced to retreat and TV footage showed the military being overwhelmed near the Democracy Monument by rampaging red shirts.
Speaking on national TV at 11.25 p.m. local time, the prime minister said that the Thai military had strict guidelines on its rules of engagement and could only use their firearms to fire in the air or in self-defense only if their lives were in danger.
Among the 12 dead from the clashes are four soldiers, four civilians and a Japanese reporter from the Reuters news agency.
PM Abhisit said that the nation will need to investigate the killings and stated that it will be done by an independent body. He offered his condolences to those families who have lost their loved ones.
Hospitals are reportedly struggling with the large numbers of wounded which are at the time of writing was 521.
One Thai news website Manager Online stated that 200 red shirt protesters have over-run BMA General Hospital in Bangkok after being unable to find friends or family members that were injured or dead in the clash.
The protesters claim the hospital moved the dead bodies outside and stormed the mortuary and patients’ rooms. Police have not been dispatched to control the situation leaving the hospital unable to receive more patients.
Saturday’s clashes follow a state of emergency that was declared last Wednesday when the Prime Minister said that the red shirts could no longer be considered peaceful after they stormed the nation’s parliament forcing members and ministers to flee.
The government was further embarrassed when the red shirts on Friday overran Thai security and temporarily took back a pro-red shirt TV station that was closed down under the state of emergency.
There have been reports of smaller red shirt incidents outside other government buildings and further afield in Thailand’s north. The red shirts are holding on to their other Bangkok base which is situated in the Siam commercial district in Bangkok.
The red shirts, or UDD, is a loose coalition of supporters of the fugitive former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, pro-democracy activists and ex-communists.
Thaksin, has been addressing the protesters by video link on a regular basis from overseas. The former PM is a billionaire businessman living in self-imposed exile to avoid corruption charges related to his time in office as prime minister. His government was ousted by a military coup in 2006.
