Re: BANGKOK: More than 100K at 9pm. Many More Coming. JAMS 50km Long. ArbiSHIT SHITTI
Seh Daeng, rogue general has just been shot. Is this final push?
http://twitter.com/georgebkk
Renegade General shot AFP news
BANGKOK (AFP) - A renegade Thai general allied with "Red Shirt" anti-government protesters was shot and seriously wounded Thursday, hours after authorities threatened a lockdown of the vast rally site.
Gunshots and a series of loud explosions were heard close to the Red Shirts' sprawling encampment in the retail heart of the capital occupied by thousands of opposition protesters in the latest bout of violence.
Related article: Key dates in Thailand's political crisis.
Police said an unknown number of people were taken to hospitals in the area. Blood was splattered on the street near the shooting, though it was not clear where the firing came from.
It came after the prime minister shelved a plan for November elections and hopes faded for a resolution to a crippling two-month crisis that has sparked periodic violence, leaving 29 people dead and 1,000 injured.
The International Herald Tribune reported that Major-General Khattiya Sawasdipol was shot in the head during an interview with one of its reporters close to the protest hub.
The dissident soldier, a key figure in the protest movement, was shot in the right temple and was undergoing an operation in intensive care, a spokesman for the official Erawan emergency centre told AFP.
Profile: Major-General Khattiya Sawasdipol.
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The "Red Shirts" have been camped out in the capital for the past two months
The circumstances of the shooting were unclear. Hours earlier the army had warned it would deploy snipers in the area as part of a lockdown in the protest site aimed at preventing more protesters joining the rally.
The fiery general, accused by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva of trying to prevent an end to the street demonstrations, has made no secret of encouraging the "Red Shirt" protesters to oppose a reconciliation deal.
"It's important that I'm here. Everyone is here because Seh Daeng is here," he told AFP earlier in the day during an interview within the protest site, using his own nickname.
An army spokesman had said that troops would surround the rally site in the heart of Bangkok with armoured vehicles and that demonstrators would be allowed to leave but not enter the area.
"Snipers will be deployed in the operation," said the spokesman, Colonel Sunsern Kaewkumnerd, after issuing a series of tough warnings to the "Red Shirt" protesters in recent weeks.
Sunsern said soldiers would be authorised to use real bullets for warning shots, self-defence and against "armed terrorists," although the government did not announce any immediate plan to forcibly disperse protesters.
An unsuccessful attempt by troops on April 10 to clear a different area in the capital's historic district sparked fierce street fighting that left 25 people dead and hundreds wounded.
Large crowds of Red Shirts, including some elderly, women and children, remain inside the protest camp
The Reds say the government is undemocratic because it came to power in a 2008 parliamentary vote after a court ousted elected allies of their hero, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was unseated in a 2006 coup.
Abhisit announced earlier he had ditched a plan to hold elections in mid-November under a peace plan aimed at ending the tense standoff because the protesters were refusing to disperse.
"I have told security officials to restore normality as soon as possible," he said.
Abhisit had offered to dissolve parliament in the second half of September for elections on November 14 if all parties accepted his reconciliation plan.
Large crowds of Red Shirts, including some elderly, women and children, remained at the protest site, which has been fortified with barricades made from razor wire, fuel-soaked tyres and sharpened bamboo spears.
Some foreign embassies in the area closed early due to the threatened lockdown, with the US, British, and Dutch embassies suspending visa services.
Abhisit Vejjajiva has shelved a plan for November elections
Shops, restaurants and other businesses in the area were closing early in response to a request by the authorities.
The mostly poor and working class Reds, who launched their campaign in mid-March for immediate elections, initially agreed to enter the process but efforts to reach a deal that would see them go home have since broken down.
Observers say there are signs of splits emerging between the moderate and hardline elements within the protest movement.
If Abhisit does not go ahead with the proposed election "he doesn't have a plan or even a means of dealing with a very real crisis," said Thailand analyst Michael Montesano.
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