BANGKOK, Thailand - Authorities detained 15 suspects, including some military officers, in connection with a string of New Year's bombings that killed three people and threw celebrations in the Thai capital into chaos, police said Saturday.
Nearly 100 police officers and soldiers searched 18 locations around Bangkok and its outlying suburbs where they detained the eight military officers and seven civilians, according to a police officer who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. None of them has been charged and no further details were immediately released.
Among the locations searched was a community radio station in Lopburi, north of Bangkok, where authorities believe the bombs were assembled, police and a local television station said.
"I was informed by police that they have detained some suspects and it is very regrettable that some of the officers are involved," Prime Minister Surayud Julanont said. "It is the power of police to investigate and file charges if they have evidence."
Col. Sansern Khaewkhamnerd, a spokesman for the military-installed Council for National Security, said soldiers were part of the raid because some suspects are army officers. He refused to elaborate.
Thailand's powerful military declared that the string of New Year's bomb attacks were staged by politicians and renegade army officers loyal to exiled Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was overthrown during a bloodless coup in September and has since lived abroad.
Until now, it has offered little proof and arrested nobody in the bombings, which killed three people and wounded nearly 40.
Thaksin has accused the country's ruling authorities of unfairly implying he was behind the violence.
He also said he suspected the Islamic separatists who have been waging a long-running insurgency in the country's south may have been responsible for the eight small blasts.
The military-installed government said Saturday that Thaksin can return to Thailand if he stays out of politics, reversing a ban that had been in place since September.
"Mr. Thaksin should express clearly that he will stop all (political) movements and express that his family wants to live in peace," Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont told a local television program. "Then, we can talk and make arrangements."
Thaksin's lawyer Noppadol Patama said the exiled former leader would be willing to discuss a reconciliation "provided that his freedom will not be deprived while he is staying in Thailand."
