BANGKOK — Police claimed significant progress on Wednesday toward finding the mastermind of Thailand's deadliest attack after an arrested man admitted being near the Aug. 17 shrine blast and fingerprints tied him to the room of a suspected bomber. The unidentified man, arrested less than a kilometre from the Cambodian border on Tuesday, had told police he was not the bomber, but was in same area when a massive explosion killed 20 people. “It's natural that the suspect will deny he did it, but we still have to continue to look into that,” deputy national police chief Chakthip Chaijinda told reporters. “Right now the case has progressed about 70 percent already.” The latest suspect had stayed in the same Nong Chok area of Bangkok as another man arrested in a raid on Saturday that found stacks of fake passports, TNT, C4 and fertiliser. An arrest warrant was issued on Wednesday for a Turkish man who police believed was in his home country. He is married to a Thai woman currently in Turkey who was in contact with Thai authorities. She had rented a room in a second Bangkok building raided by police, where bomb-making materials were found. — Reuters
