Protesters move to Bangkok's besieged airports

A leader of the People's Alliance for Democracy said demonstrators will end their more than three-month sit-in at the prime minister's office compound and move to both Bangkok airports, which they seized last week in their push to oust the government, severing all civilian flights in or out of the capital.

Airlines were meanwhile flying dozens of empty planes out of Bangkok's main international airport.

Some 30 planes had been flown out starting Sunday and an additional 50 were to be moved later Monday, some of them to protest-free airports elsewhere in Thailand so that stranded travelers can fly out of the country, said Serirat Prasutanont, director of the Airports Authority of Thailand.

Thailand's political crisis escalated Sunday when some 10,000 pro-government activists converged on Bangkok to counter rival protesters who have forced the prime minister to run the country from outside the capital.

Explosions Sunday targeting the anti-government protesters injured at least 51 people, officials said, with blasts hitting the prime minister's compound and a road near the occupied domestic airport. No one claimed responsibility for Sunday's blasts, but the alliance blamed the government.

Alliance leader Chamlong Srimuang called on protesters who have the prime minister's compound since Aug. 26 to "move to the airports to support our people there."

The move did not represent a softening of the protest group's stance nor was it clear whether the three-month-old occupation of the compound was entirely over. Chamlong told supporters that they should move because it was not safe to remain at Government House.

Neither the army nor Thailand's revered king have stepped in to resolve the crisis - or offered the firm backing that Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat needs to resolve the leadership vacuum.

King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who has intervened to resolve several political crises over the past four decades, is scheduled to deliver a much-anticipated speech on his 81st birthday Friday. But whether he will actually move to resolve the paralyzing situation is uncertain.

Another awaited event is a Constitutional Court ruling Tuesday on whether three parties in the governing coalition, including Somchai's People's Power Party, committed electoral fraud.

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