Five Muslims, one Buddhist killed in south Thailand
Thursday, May 24, 2007
FIVE Muslims and a Buddhist were killed and six troops wounded in five separate attacks in Thailand's rebellious Muslim-majority far south, police said yesterday.
At least 10 masked gunmen fired into a Muslim village late on Tuesday, killing three men and a woman, police said in Yala, one of the three southern provinces caught up in three years of separatist insurgency in which more than 2,100 people have died.
"They used all sorts of guns, shooting randomly" and the four people were killed in different houses, a police investigator told Reuters by telephone.
The identity of the gunmen was unknown, but police presumed they were separatists, although Muslims accuse government supporters of killings.
Police and soldiers sent to investigate yesterday clashed with militants, and one Muslim in his 50s was killed, a Reuters journalist who travelled with the troops said.
"I saw two soldiers carrying the body on a stretcher," he said.
Earlier yesterday, a Buddhist government official was shot dead by a gunman riding pillion on a motorcycle while he was heading to work in the city of Yala on his own motorcycle, they said.
Shortly after, a 20kg bomb in a fire extinguisher exploded on a road in nearby Yaha district as a truck carrying 10 soldiers drove past, wounding three slightly, police said.
In the nearby district of Than To, militants ambushed another patrol truck of soldiers with guns and a roadside bomb, wounding three, they said.
Militants fighting a separatist war against largely Buddhist Thailand often leave booby traps at the sites of their almost daily attacks.
More than 2,200 people have been killed in a separatist insurgency in the Muslim-majority region since January 2004.
Violence is growing despite peace-building moves by the military-installed government, which came to power after a coup in September 2006.
Despite the violence and growing calls for more drastic action against the militants, Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont insists his government remains committed to a peaceful resolution of the conflict.
AFP, Reuters
At least 10 masked gunmen fired into a Muslim village late on Tuesday, killing three men and a woman, police said in Yala, one of the three southern provinces caught up in three years of separatist insurgency in which more than 2,100 people have died.
"They used all sorts of guns, shooting randomly" and the four people were killed in different houses, a police investigator told Reuters by telephone.
The identity of the gunmen was unknown, but police presumed they were separatists, although Muslims accuse government supporters of killings.
Police and soldiers sent to investigate yesterday clashed with militants, and one Muslim in his 50s was killed, a Reuters journalist who travelled with the troops said.
"I saw two soldiers carrying the body on a stretcher," he said.
Earlier yesterday, a Buddhist government official was shot dead by a gunman riding pillion on a motorcycle while he was heading to work in the city of Yala on his own motorcycle, they said.
Shortly after, a 20kg bomb in a fire extinguisher exploded on a road in nearby Yaha district as a truck carrying 10 soldiers drove past, wounding three slightly, police said.
In the nearby district of Than To, militants ambushed another patrol truck of soldiers with guns and a roadside bomb, wounding three, they said.
Militants fighting a separatist war against largely Buddhist Thailand often leave booby traps at the sites of their almost daily attacks.
More than 2,200 people have been killed in a separatist insurgency in the Muslim-majority region since January 2004.
Violence is growing despite peace-building moves by the military-installed government, which came to power after a coup in September 2006.
Despite the violence and growing calls for more drastic action against the militants, Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont insists his government remains committed to a peaceful resolution of the conflict.
AFP, Reuters
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