Protesters burn Bangkok

BANGKOK (AP):

Downtown Bangkok became a flaming battleground yesterday as an army assault forced anti-government protest leaders to surrender, enraging followers who shot grenades and set fire to landmark buildings, cloaking the skyline in black smoke.

Using live ammunition, troops dispersed thousands of Red Shirt protesters who had been camped in the capital's premier shopping and residential district for weeks.

Five protesters and an Italian news photographer were killed in the ensuing gun battles and about 60 wounded.

After Red Shirt leaders gave themselves up to police, rioters set fires at the Stock Exchange, several banks, the headquarters of the Metropolitan Electricity Authority, Central World, one of Asia's biggest shopping malls, and a cinema that burned to ground. There were also reports of looting.

Protest camp

Firefighters retreated after protesters fired guns at them, and thick smoke drifted across the sky of this city of 10 million people.

Sporadic clashes between troops and protesters continued in the night at the site of the former protest camp.

The chaos in Bangkok in the wake of the two-month protest will deepen the severe impact dealt to the economy and tourist industry of Thailand, a key United States ally, long considered one of the more stable countries in Southeast Asia.

The Red Shirts, mostly rural poor, had demanded the ousting of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's government, the dissolution of Parliament and new elections.