Detained suspect admits to involvement in Bangkok bombing

BANGKOK, Sept. 7-- A foreign suspect in the Aug. 17 Bangkok bombing, who was apprehended on Sept. 1, has admitted to having handed a bomb to a yellow-shirted man suspected to be the bomber, local media reported Monday.

The detained suspect, whose nationality has yet to be confirmed, told investigators that he had been ordered by the mastermind, identified as "Izaan," to buy bomb-making materials from the Internet, the Nation newspaper quoted a source as saying.

Having finished making the bomb, the suspect, who was arrested in Thailand's Sa Kaeo province near the border of Cambodia, reported to Izaan and was then ordered to give the bomb to a yellow-shirted man, who is suspected to have planted the bomb at Erawan Shrine in downtown Bangkok.

The Erawan Shrine blast left 20 people dead and more than 120 others injured.

According to the suspect, Izaan, who left Thailand on Aug. 16, had also commanded the yellow-shirted bomber, a blue-shirted man suspected to have dropped a bomb at the Sathorn pier on Aug. 18, the first suspect to have been arrested by Thai authorities in Bangkok's Nong Chok district, and an unidentified foreigner who lived at an apartment room in Bangkok's Min Buri area, where bomb- making materials were seized.

The military handed the Sa Kaeo suspect over to police on Monday.