Thai protesters hold ground despite government blockade

BANGKOK - Protesters in the Thai capital reinforced their encampment Friday as government efforts to blockade them overnight led to sporadic violence that killed one man and saw a high-profile Red Shirt military leader shot in the head.

The protesters, who are seeking a change of government, remained defiant of attempts to force them to end their two month protest that has seen them turn an upmarket part of central Bangkok into a heavily barricaded stronghold.

The authorities on Thursday night began to cut power, public transportation and some cell phone service in the area, but music and speeches carried on from the Red Shirt stage and were relayed by sympathetic radio stations. In the morning some protesters were out early to extend their defenses.

With the army expected to add more pressure on the demonstrators, and perhaps try to clear them, the Red Shirts suddenly found themselves without a key ally, a rogue general who served as their tactician for street confrontations.

Maj. Gen. Khattiya Sawasdiphol, better known by the nickname Seh Daeng, was shot in the head while talking to reporters just inside the Red Shirts' perimeter Thursday evening about an hour after the government's lockdown was launched. He was taken to a hospital in a coma and was in critical condition. The attacker was not known.

Several small street battles later Thursday night saw one man killed and 11 other people wounded. Protesters stopped police trucks and forced them to turn back; they hurled rocks at soldiers, who responded by firing live ammunition, according to an Associated Press cameraman.

Gunfire - most if not all from soldiers - and several small explosions were heard well into the night.

The skirmishes took place along the southern end of the zone held by the Red Shirts, while their main rally site at the north end was mostly undisturbed. About 10,000 protesters were believed by the government to be in the area.

The Red Shirts have turned a 1-square-mile area in the posh Rajprasong neighborhood into a sprawling camp, with portable bathrooms, free food and a stage from which their leaders deliver daily anti-government diatribes.

About 90 minutes before he was shot, Khattiya gave interviews to a series of foreign reporters, including the AP. The 59-year-old Khattiya, known by his nickname Seh Daeng, said he anticipated a military crackdown soon.

"It's either dusk or dawn when the troops will go in," said Khattiya, who was shot soon after night fell.

Khattiya was shot while talking to a New York Times journalist near the Silom subway station on the edge of the occupation zone.

The station entrance is surrounded by tall office buildings, leading to suspicions a sniper fired the shot.

Times reporter Thomas Fuller, answering questions on the newspaper's website, said he was about a half-hour into the interview when he asked the general, "Do you think the military is going to launch a crackdown, and do you think they'll be able to penetrate the barricades here?" "And there was a bang as he was answering it, and I think his last words that I heard were, 'The military cannot get in here.' And then immediately [he] just fell, just collapsed," Fuller said.

"He was looking right at me. I think the bullet went over my head and hit him in the forehead." Wearing his trademark camouflage uniform, Khattiya slumped to the ground and one person cradled his head for a while. Moments later, others dragged him by the legs, his head sliding on the ground and leaving a trail of blood.

The official Erawan emergency center said Khattiya was shot in the head and admitted to a hospital's intensive care unit.

Asked if troops shot Khattiya, government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn refused to give a direct answer. "The operation by authorities was according to international standards and law. So far, we have not found any actions by the authorities that went beyond that," he told the AP.

The government had labeled him a "terrorist" and a mastermind behind some of the violence.

Khattiya helped build the Red Shirt barricades of sharpened bamboo stakes and tires around the protest area, was accused of creating a paramilitary force among the protesters and had vowed to fight the army if it launched a crackdown.

He bitterly opposed reconciling with the government and had become critical of Red Shirt leaders, some of whom had wanted to accept a compromise.

Killed in the later fighting was Chartchai Bualao, 25, who was shot in the eye, according to the government's medical emergency center. At least seven other people were injured.

The Red Shirts believe Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's coalition government came to power illegitimately through manipulation of the courts and the backing of the powerful military. They are demanding he dissolve Parliament immediately and call new elections.

Tens of thousands of Red Shirts streamed into the capital March 12 and occupied the historic downtown area. An army attempt to clear them April 10 led to clashes that killed 25 people and wounded more than 800. Another four people were killed in related violence in the following weeks.

On Thursday, the government extended a state of emergency to cover 17 of Thailand's 76 provinces to prevent more people from joining the protesters in the capital.

The decree gives the army broad powers to deal with protesters and places restrictions on civil liberties. The government spokesman said it is intended to prevent "masses of people trying to come to Bangkok." Earlier Thursday, Col. Sansern Kaewkamnerd said security forces were preparing to impose a lockdown on the protest area. The army spokesman said armored personnel carriers and sharpshooters would be sent to surround the zone, and power, public transportation and cell phone service were suspended in the area.

The Red Shirts see Abhisit's government as serving an elite insensitive to the plight of most Thais. The protesters include many supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a populist leader accused of corruption and abuse of power and ousted in a 2006 military coup.

Thaksin, a former telecommunications billionaire who fled overseas to avoid a corruption conviction, has publicly encouraged the protests and is widely believed to be helping bankroll them. He claims to be a victim of political persecution.

- Associated Press writers Grant Peck and Thanyarat Doksone and cameraman Raul Gallego contributed to this report, with additional research by Warangkana Tempati.