Thailand to ban metal gas canisters in south over bomb fears

Security officials in insurgency-wracked southern Thailand plan to ban the use of metal cooking gas tanks because they are often used to make homemade bombs.
Police Capt Kritapas Kruenet said Wednesday that they will be replaced with polymer and fiberglass cylinders that can also be used as bombs but cause much less damage.
The military's Internal Security Operations Command announced Monday that all metal gas containers must be replaced by September 30 next year in the three southernmost provinces where an Islamic separatist insurgency has flared since 2004.
The use of homemade bombs is a common rebel tactic. More than 5,000 people have been killed since 2004 in the three provinces, the only ones with Muslim majorities in Buddhist-dominated Thailand.