LAOTIAN authorities have detained suspects in a road ambush that killed at least a dozen people, including two Swiss tourists, an official report said. The government blamed the attack on bandits, not terrorists. On February 6, unidentified attackers fired assault rifles at a public bus and bicyclists on Laos’ main north-south highway near the popular tourist town of Vang Vieng, about 170 km north of the capital, Vientiane. The state Khao Pathet Lao news agency quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Phongsavath Boupha as saying that officials had arrested suspects who may have been motivated by “robbery, burglary, smuggling and drug trafficking”. The report, posted on the agency’s internet site yesterday, did not say when the arrests took place or how many suspects had been detained. Among the victims were a local Chinese merchant and two Swiss tourists – Silvia Franziska Meier and Markus Jochen Nagelin. The ambush also injured 30 people, the report said. Full Story
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