The ROP strikes again.

Thailand (AP) — Suspected Muslim insurgents staged the most deadly attack in years in Thailand’s restive south, killing 11 people and wounding 110 with car bombs that targeted Saturday shoppers just before lunchtime.

A first batch of explosives planted inside a parked pickup truck ripped through an area of restaurants and shops in a busy area of Yala city, a main commercial hub of Thailand’s restive southern provinces, said district police chief Col. Kritsada Kaewchandee.

About 20 minutes later, just as onlookers gathered at the blast site, a second car bomb exploded, causing the majority of casualties.

“This is the worst attack in the past few years,” said Col. Pramote Promin, deputy spokesman of a regional security agency. “The suspected insurgents were targeting people’s lives. They (chose) a bustling commercial area, so they wanted to harm people.”

More than 5,000 people have been killed in Thailand’s three southernmost provinces — Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala — since an Islamist insurgency flared in January 2004.