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Three spent cartridges from an M16 assault rifle found at the scene of a dramatic attack on Sondhi Limthongkul last week were from a large lot of bullets assigned to the 9th Infantry Division in Kanchanaburi, Army chief General Anupong Paochinda admitted yesterday.
"This lot comprising tens of thousands of rounds are live munitions assigned for livefire training for various units in the 9th Infantry Division," he said.
Anupong vowed to hold responsible any Army officer found to have released bullets or given them to gunmen for the attack on the media mogul last Friday.
Responding publicly for the first time to criticism by leaders of the red shirts about the use of live munitions on rioters in the military crackdown over Songkran, Anupong said soldiers were entitled to protect themselves against "any direct threats to their lives or the use of lethal means" by protesters.
"It can't be a fireatwill type of shooting rampage," he said.
Use of live munitions in selfdefence had to be done "under rules of engagement, with an order given and in combat formation".
"The use of live munitions must also not cause collateral damage to property or lives of innocent members of the public," Anupong said.
The Army chief gave examples of lethal or direct threats, used by redshirt protesters on April 13: trying to hit troops with unmanned city buses or commandeered taxis.
"In these cases, troops are authorised to engage the threats using live munitions under standard procedure," he said.
There were also 17 cartridges fired from an HK33, which is also manufactured by the Army under licence from a German arms producer, but there are no reports on whether these had Army initials engraved on them.
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