Gunshots rattle Bangkok as prime minister flies out

Gunmen opened fire near several opposition protest sites in Bangkok Wednesday, stoking tensions in the capital as Thailand‘s embattled prime minister flew to her political stronghold in the north.

Street violence, often targeting protesters, has become a near-daily feature of the almost four-month-long crisis gripping Thailand, with the toll standing at 22 dead and hundreds wounded.

Police said unknown gunmen fired sporadically early Wednesday for around an hour in three areas of Bangkok where demonstrators are camped out alongside upscale shopping malls and luxury hotels. Nobody was wounded.

“We don’t know which side fired the shots, but the aim of the gunmen is to intimidate,” deputy national police spokesman Anucha Romyanan told AFP.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra is under intense pressure to step down with the protesters calling for an unelected “people’s council” to tackle corruption and a culture of money politics.

More from GlobalPost: Food fight: Thailand’s crisis boils down to a battle over white rice

Her supporters say they will not accept the removal of an elected government by the protesters, military or the courts, raising fears of a protracted standoff.

Yingluck has been summoned by an anti-graft panel on Thursday to hear charges of neglect of duty in connection with a rice subsidy scheme that the opposition says is rife with corruption.

If found guilty she could be removed from office and face a five-year ban from politics.

Yingluck flew to the northern city of Chiang Rai on Wednesday to inspect government-backed projects, saying she might not attend the National Anti-Corruption Commission hearing.

“I have not yet made up my mind,” Yingluck told reporters when asked if she would face the panel.

But a government official who did not want to be named said Yingluck was expected to stay in northern Thailand until Friday.

Officials denied the premier was on the run from protesters, who have vowed to pursue her wherever she goes and have besieged state buildings where she has held cabinet meetings since the occupation of her headquarters in December.

“She is not avoiding the political situation in Bangkok,” said Transport Minister Chadchart Sittipunt.

Children among victims

More than 700 people have been wounded in street violence since demonstrators took to the streets in late October seeking to curb the political dominance of Yingluck’s billionaire family.

The opposition blames Yingluck’s followers for the violence, while government supporters accuse the demonstrators of trying to incite the military to step in.

Four children were among the victims of two separate grenade and gun attacks on opposition rallies in Bangkok and eastern Thailand over the weekend, drawing widespread condemnation.

More from GlobalPost: Thais bring children to the insurrection, despite recent deaths

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the police headquarters in Bangkok on Wednesday demanding justice for the slain children.

Protesters have occupied several key intersections in the Thai capital with guards — many wearing body armour — searching cars and pedestrians at road blocks made from tyres and sandbags.

It is the country’s deadliest political unrest since 2010, prompting warnings from the army chief that Thailand risks sinking into civil war unless the two sides pull back.

Thailand has been scored by deep divisions since a bloodless coup by the military in 2006 ousted Yingluck’s elder brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, as prime minister.

The latest political violence is the worst since more than 90 people died during protests by pro-Thaksin “Red Shirts” in 2010 that sparked street clashes and a bloody military crackdown.

Yingluck swept to power in 2011 on a wave of support in the rural north and northeast, helped by the flagship rice policy paying farmers up to 50 percent above market rates for their crop.

But the scheme has left the kingdom with stockpiles of unsold rice after Thailand lost its rank as the world’s top rice exporter.

The government, left with limited powers since the dissolution of parliament in December, owes farmers an estimated $ 3.5 billion but has struggled to raise funds to settle its bill, prompting hundreds of farmers to demonstrate for payment in Bangkok.

A general election held on Feb. 2 failed to calm the crisis after protesters obstructed the vote in many opposition strongholds.

Election re-runs are due to be held on March 2 in five of the affected provinces but further disruption appears likely, particularly after a recent court decision restricted the use of force by the authorities to deal with the protests.

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Gunshots rattle Bangkok as prime minister flies out

Newtown massacre recordings reveal calm, anguish and gunshots

The entrance of Sandy Hook Elementary school is seen after an attack by gunman Adam Lanza in Newtown, Connecticut in this police evidence photo released by the state’s attorney’s office November 25, 2013.

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Newtown massacre recordings reveal calm, anguish and gunshots

Boston bomb suspect died of gunshots, blunt trauma

Police cars sit across from the Graham, Putnam and Mahoney Funeral Parlors, in Worcester, Mass., Friday, May 3, 2013. Owner Peter Stefan confirmed his facility will handle funeral arrangements for Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, but did not say whether he had possession of the body. (AP Photo/The Telegram & Gazette)

Police cars sit across from the Graham, Putnam and Mahoney Funeral Parlors, in Worcester, Mass., Friday, May 3, 2013. Owner Peter Stefan confirmed his facility will handle funeral arrangements for Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, but did not say whether he had possession of the body. (AP Photo/The Telegram & Gazette)

Peter Stefan, funeral director and owner of Graham, Putnam and Mahoney Funeral Parlors in Worcester, Mass., sits in one of the facility’s rooms Friday, May 3, 2013. Stefan confirmed his funeral home will handle funeral arrangements for Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, but did not say whether he had possession of the body. (AP Photo/The Telegram & Gazette, Chris Christo)

Don Law speaks at a news conference for The One Fund Benefit concert at House of Blues Boston on May 3, 2013 in Boston. Aerosmith, James Taylor, and Jimmy Buffett are among the scheduled performers for a Boston Marathon benefit concert May 30. The show, at the TD Garden, will benefit One Fund, the collection of donations that will be distributed to the survivors of the April 15 bombings and the families of those killed in the attack. (AP Photo/The Boston Herald, Ted Fitzgerald) BOSTON GLOBE OUT; METRO BOSTON OUT; MAGS OUT; ONLINE OUT

Massachusetts State Police walk out of the woods of The Smith Neck Farm in Dartmouth, Mass. on Friday, May 3, 2013 as federal, state and local authorities on Friday searched the woods near the UMass-Dartmouth campus as part of the marathon investigation. (AP Photo/The Standard-Times, John Sladewski)

Map locates Boston funeral home associated with Boston Marathon bombing.

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BOSTON (AP) — A suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings died from gunshot wounds and blunt trauma to his head and torso, his death certificate says.

Worcester funeral home owner Peter Stefan has 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s body and read details from his death certificate on Friday. The certificate cites Tsarnaev’s “gunshot wounds of torso and extremities,” Stefan said.

Tsarnaev died last month after a gunfight with authorities a few days after the deadly marathon bombing. Police have said he ran out of ammunition before his younger brother dragged his body under a vehicle while fleeing the scene.

Tsarnaev’s family was making arrangements for his funeral as investigators searched the woods near a college attended by his younger brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, on Friday.

The funeral parlor in Worcester is familiar with Muslim services and said it will handle arrangements for Tamerlan Tsarnaev, whose body was released by the state medical examiner Thursday night.

The body was taken initially to a North Attleborough funeral home, where it was greeted by about 20 protesters. Stefan, owner of Graham Putnam and Mahoney Funeral Parlors in Worcester, an hour’s drive west of Boston, said everybody deserves a dignified burial service no matter the circumstances of his or her death and he is prepared for protests.

Tsarnaev died three days after the bombing in a furious getaway attempt in which authorities say he and his brother, ethnic Chechens from Russia who came to the United States about a decade ago, killed an MIT campus police officer and tossed homemade bombs and grenades at police. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, ran over his brother’s body as he drove away from the scene to escape, authorities have said.

Meanwhile, two U.S. officials said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told interrogators that he and his brother initially considered setting off their bombs on July Fourth.

Boston police said they planned to review security procedures for the Independence Day Boston Pops concert and fireworks display, which draws a crowd of more than 500,000 annually and is broadcast to a national TV audience. Authorities plan to look at security procedures for large events held in other cities, notably the massive New Year’s Eve celebration held each year in New York City’s Times Square, Massachusetts state police spokesman David Procopio said.

Gov. Deval Patrick said everything possible will be done to assure a safe event.

“I think the most important thing is that we got them, and there’s investigation continuing about where the other leads may lead,” he said. “I can tell you, having been thoroughly briefed, that the law enforcement at every level is pursuing everything.”

As part of the bombing investigation, federal, state and local authorities were searching the woods near the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth campus, where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was a student. Christina DiIorio-Sterling, a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz, could not say what investigators were looking for but said residents should know there is no threat to public safety.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was found hiding in a tarp-covered boat in a suburban Boston backyard, faces a charge of using a weapon of mass destruction to kill. Three of his college classmates were arrested Wednesday and accused of helping after the bombing to remove a laptop and backpack from his dormitory room before the FBI searched it.

The April 15 bombing, using pressure cookers packed with explosives, nails, ball bearings and metal shards, killed three people and injured more than 260 others near the marathon’s finish line.

The brothers considered setting off their bombs on July Fourth but decided to carry out the attack sooner when they finished assembling the bombs, the surviving suspect told interrogators after he was arrested, according to two U.S. officials briefed on the investigation. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation.

Investigators believe some of the explosives used in the attack were assembled in Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s home, though there may have been some assembly elsewhere, one of the officials said. It does not appear that the brothers ever had big, definitive plans, the official said.

The brothers’ mother insists the allegations against them are lies.

Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security ordered border agents to immediately begin verifying that every international student who arrives in the U.S. has a valid student visa, according to an internal memorandum obtained Friday by The Associated Press. The new procedure is the government’s first security change directly related to the Boston bombings.

The order from a senior official at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, David J. Murphy, was circulated Thursday and came one day after President Barack Obama’s administration acknowledged that one of the students accused of hiding evidence, Azamat Tazhayakov, of Kazakhstan, was allowed to return to the U.S. in January without a valid student visa.

Tazhayakov’s lawyer has said he had nothing to do with the bombing and was shocked by it.

A benefit concert featuring Aerosmith, James Taylor and Jimmy Buffett is scheduled for May 30 at the TD Garden in Boston. The proceeds will go to The One Fund, which has taken in more than $ 28 million for those injured and the families of those who were killed.

The fund’s administrator, Kenneth Feinberg, said Friday he plans to hold meetings with victims next week and begin cutting checks by the end of June.

___

Associated Press writers Steve LeBlanc in Boston and Pete Yost, Eileen Sullivan and Alicia A. Caldwell in Washington contributed to this report.

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Boston bomb suspect died of gunshots, blunt trauma