Thai troops advances into protests hidouts

BANGKOK (AP) -- Buildings smoldered across central Bangkok early Thursday and troops exchanged sporadic fire with pockets of holdouts a day after the army routed anti-government protesters in a push to end Thailand's deadliest political violence in nearly 20 years.

The government quelled most of the violence in the battered Thai capital after a major military operation that killed at least 7 people and left 88 wounded. But underlying political divisions that caused Thailand's crisis may have been exacerbated, and unrest spread to provinces in the north and northeast.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva imposed a nighttime curfew in the capital and 23 other provinces and said his government would restore calm. Although leaders of the Red Shirt demonstrators surrendered, sporadic clashes between troops and remaining protesters continued Thursday morning.

As night fell Wednesday, Bangkok's skyline was blotted by flashes of fire and black smoke from more than two dozen buildings set ablaze - including Thailand's stock exchange, main power company, banks, a movie theater and one of Asia's largest shopping malls.

On Thursday morning, troops in the central business district, occupied by protesters for weeks, exchanged occasional fire with holdouts as locals in the area looted a vast tent city the activists had cobbled together.