Empty planes leave Bangkok

BANGKOK, Thailand — Airlines were flying dozens of empty planes out of Bangkok's international airport today as authorities struggled to clear it of protesters to reopen international links and move 100,000 travelers stranded by the crisis, the airport said.

Some 30 planes had been flown out starting Sunday, and 50 more were to be moved later today, some of them to protest-free airports elsewhere in Thailand so stranded travelers could fly out of the country, said Sereerat Prasutanont, director of the Airports Authority of Thailand.

Thailand's political crisis escalated Sunday when thousands of pro-government activists converged on Bangkok to counter rival protesters who seized the city's two airports last week and 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 in Bangkok where the protesters have camped out since August and a road near the occupied domestic airport.

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.

The problem runs deeper than the airport closures. Political violence has added to the sense of drift bordering on anarchy that pervades the country's administration.

No one claimed responsibility for Sunday's blasts, but Suriyasai Katasila, a spokesman for the anti-government People's Alliance for Democracy, blamed the government.

The alliance says it will not give up 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 overthrown in a coup in 2006, fled overseas and was sentenced in absentia to two years in jail on corruption charges.

With a deepening political crisis draining millions of dollars from the economy by the hour, government opponents hope a court can break the deadlock that politicians, police and the military have failed to resolve.

The Constitutional Court is expected to rule as early as Tuesday whether three parties in Somchai's coalition, including his own People Power Party, should be dissolved for alleged electoral fraud.

A ruling against the government and its allies would provoke counterprotests from his supporters.

Pro-government leaders, who call their movement the Democratic Alliance Against Dictatorship, suggested at a rally Sunday that the court was conspiring with the opposition by moving up the date for a ruling. They had threatened to drive the opposition from the airports if police fail to do so.

For months, each apparent solution has ushered in a new crisis and more bloodshed. Grenade attacks on anti-government demonstrators are almost a daily event, and tensions are growing as rival camps threaten to assault each other and rumors of an impending coup spread.

The prime minister is trying to govern from the northern city of Chiang Mai, 350 miles north of Bangkok, and his spokesman suggested early in the crisis that Somchai was staying away from the capital for safety reasons.

Last week, the army's commander said he would not lead a coup to oust Somchai because it was unlikely to solve the political stalemate. Also distancing himself has been revered 80-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who as a constitutional monarch plays no open role in politics but who has healed social fractures in the past.

But as economic damage rises — the airport standoffs are costing the country $57 million to $85 million a day, according to the Federation of Thai Industries — so does pressure from some quarters on the military to intervene.

Bangkok's new, $3.8 billion Suvarnabhumi International Airport shut down Tuesday night, when thousands of anti-government protesters seized the buildings from police who put up little resistance. Two days later, demonstrators shut down the Don Muang Airport as well.