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BANGKOK: The Thai activist who led a blockade of the kingdom's main airports last year was shot and wounded in the head Friday in an assassination attempt the government said was aimed at inciting fresh unrest.
Doctors said that Sondhi Limthongkul, founder of the "Yellow Shirts" royalist movement that helped topple former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, was out of danger after an operation to remove a bullet fragment from his skull.
Gunmen wielding automatic weapons fired about 100 rounds at his car in a dawn attack, wounding Sondhi as well as his driver and an aide, a local police commander said.
The attack will heighten tensions between Sondhi's Yellow Shirts and Thaksin's rival Red Shirts, who took to the streets of Bangkok this week in violent battles with security forces.
The ambush took place as Sondhi, the leader of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) which seized Bangkok's two airports for nine days last year, was on his way to record a programme for his private television station.
"At least two attackers followed Sondhi's car, overtook it and sprayed it with about 100 rounds of gunfire from AK-47 and M-16s," said the police commander, Colonel King Kwaengwisatchaicharn.
"The motive for the attack is still under investigation," he said.
Hospital authorities said that 61-year-old Sondhi was out of danger after a two-hour operation to remove the bullet fragment but would remain in intensive care for a week.
"Sondhi is now safe, in a good condition and able to talk," Chaiwan Charoenchoketavee, director of the Vajira Medical College, told AFP.
"The bullet shrapnel penetrated the outer skull and caused the broken skull to crush the outer membrane of the brain, but it did not penetrate into the brain itself," he said.
Police said Sondhi's driver was also in a serious condition, while an aide suffered minor injuries.
News websites showed pictures of Sondhi standing in front of his car after the attack, his face and shirt covered in blood.
Government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said the attack was an attempt to create more troubles in Thailand, where protests by the Red Shirts left at least two dead and 123 injured before being shut down by security forces Tuesday.
"There have been attempts to assassinate Sondhi as well as the government, including the prime minister and other leading figures, from time to time. Thus this is not new," Panitan told AFP.
"But this time the act took place while the state of emergency is still in effect. It was an attempt to create unrest," he said. Bangkok and surrounding areas remain under a state of emergency declared on Sunday.
"We do not know who is responsible but we do know the attack was politically motivated," said PAD spokesman Parnthep Pourpongpan. "We will wait for the police investigation and follow the justice system."
Thailand has been beset by nearly three years of political turmoil, with mass protests wreaking havoc with daily life and occasionally erupting into violence.
At the heart of the dispute is Thaksin, a polarising populist adored by his mainly poor supporters and loathed by Sondhi's PAD and its backers among Bangkok's elite in the palace, military and bureaucracy.
The PAD held huge rallies in the streets in 2006 that opened the way for the military to remove Thaksin from power in a coup.
Thaksin supporters are pushing for the current premier, Abhisit Vejjajiva, to resign and call fresh elections, saying he came to power illegitimately in the wake of a court decision that ousted Thaksin's allies.
Anti-government rallies shut down a summit of Asian leaders in the kingdom last weekend, prompting the government to cancel Thaksin's passport and begin a campaign to arrest the leaders of the protest movement.
Media mogul Sondhi was once friends with Thaksin and at one point declared him Thailand's "best prime minister ever" -- but then began a campaign against him in late 2005.
Thaksin said Sondhi wanted revenge after the media tycoon invested heavily in a new television station that was blocked by regulatory hurdles.
Thaksin, a billionaire tycoon, is currently living in exile to escape a jail term for corruption.
- AFP/yb
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