Troops killed in rebel attack in Thai south

YALA, Thailand (Reuters) - Two soldiers were shot dead and three others wounded when suspected separatist insurgents attacked an army checkpoint in Thailand's restive deep south on Sunday, police said.

The gunfight took place before dawn in the southern border province of Narathiwat, where about 10 rebels riding in two pickup trucks exchanged fire with the soldiers for five minutes before fleeing.

The attack took the death toll to 13 in the last six days in the mainly Muslim provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani, where nearly 3,500 people have died in five years of violence.

The 30,000 soldiers deployed in the rubber-rich region have made little progress toward quelling the insurgency, which no group has claimed responsibility for, or stated any demands.

The three provinces were once part of a Malay Muslim sultanate until annexed by Buddhist Thailand a century ago, and separatist tensions have simmered ever since.

(Reporting by Surapan Boonthanom; Writing by Kittipong Soonprasert; Editing by Martin Petty and Jerry Norton)