BANGKOK, Thailand — Government supporters converged on the capital Sunday in a counter to rival protesters who seized control of Bangkok’s two airports and forced the prime minister to run the country from afar.
Neither the army nor Thailand’s revered king has stepped in to resolve the crisis — or offered the firm backing that Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat needs to resolve the leadership vacuum.
The problem runs deeper than the airport closures, which have stranded up to 100,000 travelers, strangled the key tourism industry and affected plane schedules worldwide. Political violence has added to the sense of drift bordering on anarchy that pervades the country’s administration.
Explosions Sunday hit the prime minister’s compound, which protesters from the People’s Alliance for Democracy have held since August; an anti-government TV station; and a road near the main entrance to the occupied domestic airport. At least 51 people were injured, officials said.
No one claimed responsibility, but Suriyasai Katasila, a spokesman for the protest group, blamed the government.
The alliance says it will not stop the protests until Somchai resigns, accusing him of being a puppet of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the alliance’s original target. Thaksin, who is Somchai’s brother-in-law, was deposed in a 2006 military coup and has fled the country to escape corruption charges.
Thousands of government supporters wearing red shirts, headbands and bandanas joined a Sunday rally against the protest alliance.
They have adopted red to distinguish themselves from their yellow-garbed rivals.
