Mae Sai, Thailand • The leaders overseeing the desperate and dangerous rescue of 12 young soccer players and their coach from a flooded cave labyrinth in northern Thailand were only half joking when they quipped that success was in the hands of the rain god Phra Pirun.
They were celebrating a second triumph after divers guided four more boys through tight passages and flooded caverns to safety Monday. “Two days, eight Boars,” read a Facebook post by the Thai navy SEALS about the operation that began Sunday, more than two weeks after the Wild Boars soccer team became trapped.